


Let Your Body Do the Talking

by sinnoh



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Despair, Awkwardness, Drinking, Drunkenness, Language, M/M, Rating May Change, Slow To Update, and a lot of dr1 characters, basically every sdr2 character, check inside for the deets, gundam is an annoying vegan as well, like very slow dont @ me please, theres also a ton of minor side couples
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-02
Updated: 2017-11-28
Packaged: 2018-08-19 02:18:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 35,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8185270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinnoh/pseuds/sinnoh
Summary: Why, oh why, did Kazuichi have to end up hanging out with Gundam Tanaka at his house party? He was annoying, excessive, embarrassing, and... maybe even a little cute?





	1. bound to fall in love (uh-huh honey)

**Author's Note:**

> SOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! welcome to my (hopefully) regularly updated soudam fanfic!! i got the idea for this fic a few days ago and actually started off writing the middle of the second chapter, so i was excited to churn this one out during a 3 hour art lecture as soon as i knew what i wanted to get done!!!
> 
> im shooting for around four chapters with this, and MAYBE...MAYBE SOME SMUTTY STUFF AT THE END...WINK WONK...so be aware rating may change! 
> 
> as for those tiny side pairings, here they are: Ishimondo, LeoSaya, KomaHina, Mahiyoko, Sonanami, FuyuPeko, Akanidai, annnnnnnd (believe it or not) some saimota :P
> 
> btw souda is referred to as kazuichi bc thats his actual Name (and souda refers to close friends by their first name outloud and in his head, and not so close friends by their last names outloud and sometimes first names in his head)
> 
> anyway im actually super proud of this fanfic and im so excited which is why im posting at 1 am too atm so im hoping it gets some love so i can be inspired to write the rest!!!

Kazuichi wasn’t sure how he’d forgotten about throwing a party at his house on a Friday night after he’d worked a full 8 hour shift. He vaguely even remembered Leon talking to Mondo about a list of snack foods to buy, while he himself had been given the task of picking up assorted beverages from the liquor store on his way home. However, it hadn’t clicked in his mind that there was an actual gathering going on until he got home and was chewed out by Mondo for not buying enough booze.

“What- You mean there’s really going to be a house party tonight? Dude, I’m beat-!” Kazuichi protested, earning only an eyeroll from Mondo as he tidied up around the house. In other words, shoving each piece of trash underneath the nearest possible piece of furniture. This would serve no purpose, as Kazuichi knew Mondo’s uptight little boyfriend would stop by early to do a proper cleaning of the house.

“Hey, don’t act like you didn’t know! Me an’ Leon have been planning this for at least two weeks. I thought you would’ve remembered.” Mondo grumbled to him, taking his phone out to check the clock. Hopefully there’d still be time to go out and get more alcohol before it started.

Kazuichi could’ve cried. The only reason he didn’t was because it would have exhausted every last bit of energy he had. Plus, he was sure he had sweat out all of the water in his body at work. “Well, obviously, I missed the fuckin’ memo.”

Mondo shrugged half heartedly as if to say he didn’t care, and picked up a dirty magazine off the floor to chuck it towards the trash can. “Too bad. It’s happening. You can just stay in your room if you want.”

Kazuichi most certainly did not want to hole away in his room, and Mondo knew that too. It was the other’s way of simply trying to shut him up from complaining. Kazuichi heaved a heavy sigh, wishing he could go and take a rest. “Dammit... How many people then?”

“Uh… I dunno. Maybe… 30 to 40 people?”

“Dude- What the actual fuck?”

“Hey, I said you can stay in your fucking room all night if you want to! Hole away for all I care, I just thought you might have some fun too.” Mondo grunted, pushing past him into the kitchen. Kazuichi just groaned lightly, wishing he had the mindset to just crawl into a hot shower and marathon How It’s Made all night in his room. But, alas, he just couldn’t. The thought of all his friends having fun without him was too much to bear.

“… Alright, fine. I’ll help you set the shit up. Just… lemme shower and get myself ready. I smell like sweat and defeat,” he said in a huff, hurrying off to the bathroom. Honestly, exhausted from working his 8 hour shift, he wasn’t even sure if he’d be able to make it through the night.

Thankfully, the hot shower seemed to solve most of his dilemma. And the idea of booze and getting drunk off his ass during the party was extremely tempting. He’d made sure to clean his hair of all the car shop gunk, and opted for blow drying it to hurry himself along in getting ready. He did a once over of his refreshed body, feeling a smile slowly nudge onto his face a little. Hell yeah. He looked awesome. Maybe tonight wouldn’t be so exhausting; He’d get to hang out with his awesome friends and get shitfaced, hell, maybe it’d actually be pretty fun-

“AHHH! SOUDA! PUT SOME CLOTHES ON IMMEDIATELY!”

This was apparently just wishful thinking on his part, as he’d forgotten the exact nature of what his friends were like. Kazuichi screamed in return as he exited the bathroom with a thin towel around his waist, turning wide-eyed to be met with the flushed face of Ishimaru Kiyotaka.

“WHAT THE FUCK, ISHIMARU, THIS IS MY HOUSE!” Kazuichi shouted back, keeping a firm grip on the towel around his waist as he tried to keep himself from tipping over. Yup, he had almost become blissfully unaware of the fact of how fucking intrusive and annoying his friends could be.

“I UNDERSTAND THAT, BUT you should know better than to be walking around the house naked when there is a party in preparation!”

Kazuichi suppressed the urge to yell at the little man again, knowing it would only lead to a firm beat down by Mondo if he made his boyfriend cry. Still, that didn’t mean Kazuichi had much control over said urges, more so he would just turn them into random loud noises instead of actual words. He glared down Ishimaru as he stalked back to his room, slamming the door a little too hard as he let out a series of frustrated grunts. After taking a few minutes to bang his head gently against his closet door, he dressed himself in a pair of dark jeans, an old Gorillaz shirt, and a black jacket. And of course, his yellow vans.

Kazuichi was not a man of good fashion sense.

He quickly exited his room and shoved his hands deep into his pockets as he stalked back into the living room, only to find even more people in his house. When would the torture end? Not only was Ishimaru there, scrubbing down every surface with wet wipes, Maizono Sayaka was there as well, prancing around the room with a can of air freshener. Kazuichi furrowed his brows. This was a house party, not a fucking PTA meeting.

Maizono seemed to notice him and beamed brightly from across the room, waving animatedly as she greeted. “Hello, Souda! How was your day at work?”

Now Kazuichi kinda felt like a dick for making fun of her air freshener in his head. She really was one of the sweetest people in the world, a girl that one of his best friends Leon was lucky to have. He thought about apologizing to her, but that would be weird considering he didn’t say his prior comment out loud.

“It was, ah, good. Lotsa business today. Thanks for askin’,” he said earnestly, giving her a toothy grin. She seemed pleased with this answer and continued with her task of spraying down every offending smell in the room. Kazuichi turned on his heel and headed into the kitchen to find Mondo and Leon at work with assembling snacks with different plates and bowls.

“Hey, man!” Leon greeted when he noticed the other, clapping a hand against his back as some form of greeting. “Mondo told me you didn’t know there was a party tonight. Sucks to be you, amiright?”

Kazuichi huffed and tore a bag of potato chips from Leon’s hands, returning the slap on the back with a swift punch in the arm. Like he needed anymore reminders that his previous plans of peacefully drinking alone in his room until he passed out were ruined.

Wait. Actually, now that he really thought about it, that sounded like a really fucking sad plan.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, Just know I’m not cleaning any of this shit up. You can tell the two housewives out there to pick this place up in the morning, ‘cause I'm sure as hell not doing it, no way.”

Mondo grunted in frustration at the other’s rather sexist comment, reeling his arm back and punching him in the arm, causing Kazuichi’s grip on the chip bag to falter. Great, now there were fucking potato chips all over the counter. If Ishimaru had been in the room, he’d probably would have had a freakout at the mess.

“SOUDA! You have spilled potato chips all over the kitchen counter I had just cleaned-!” Ishimaru shouted at him, having apparently just walked in to watch Kazuichi’s blunder. Although, conveniently enough to miss the part where Mondo had caused it.

Oh, of course, that was right. How could he forget; The world literally hated Kazuichi Souda. Leon was snickering loudly behind his hand and Mondo tried to act as innocent as possible as Ishimaru began his rant about being so wasteful of food.

“-NOT TO MENTION this kind of mess could cause bugs! Do you want to live in a house full of roaches!?”

It was going to be one hell of a long night, that was for sure.

* * *

 

 

The actual party hadn’t started to pick up until around 9:30, and Kazuichi had to deal with three more outbursts from Ishimaru, and a small argument with a thankfully quick resolution between Maizono and Leon. That wasn’t even the beginning of his issues, though. Instead of getting mind-numbingly drunk off his mind immediately, he was forced into an awkward conversation with Hifumi Yamada on some weird fucking anime he’d watched.

“-and it ends up that the contract didn’t turn them into just magical girls-!”

Yup. This was it. He couldn’t have hated his life more at that exact moment.

“Ah, yeah, that sounds super fucking cool, Yamada- Oh, is that Celeste over there-?” He said, quickly darting out of the way the minute the other frantically began looking for said gothic girl. He weaved his way in and out of the crowd, trying to find someone he could have a pleasant conversation with as he began his venture into what would be a massive hangover the next day. His wish was made true when he saw Hinata leaning against his couch with Komaeda, Fuyuhiko, and Peko.

“Hey guys,“ he greeted, making a move to seat himself on the coffee table in front of the group, flashing them his pointed teeth as he grabbed the nearest cup filled with alcohol near him. Hinata smiled back at him, obviously happy to see his friend again. Komaeda didn’t bother to hide the way he rolled his eyes at him, and Fuyuhiko and Peko literally didn’t give a fuck about anything. Peko rarely even showed her emotions. It honestly creeped Kazuichi out. Like, when Fuyuhiko fucking proposed to her, her facial expression had been as stoic as ever even as happy tears slipped down her cheeks.

“Hey, Kazuichi. Nice to see you,” Hinata said fondly, his hand moving to pat his friend on the knee. “Me and Komaeda here were just talking to Peko and Fuyuhiko about how their wedding planning is going.”

“Yeah, it was a real fun time,” Komaeda drawled, as if to imply that Kazuichi had made it not a fun time by showing up. Hinata frowned a bit and then shrugged at the other sitting across from him, obviously meaning that Komaeda wasn’t having the best day of his life. The guy was either completely maniac, or pissed to all hell in Kazuichi’s eyes. He wasn’t even sure if Komaeda actually liked anyone besides Hinata. It was hard to tell, honestly.

He simply decided to ignore the white-haired man in exchange for focusing on the other couple in front of him. “Oh, really. That’s… cool, I guess.” Kazuichi mumbled, tipping his head back to down his cup of alcohol in one go.

Fuyuhiko snorted through his nose and gave the other a smirk, “If you think it’s so cool, I guess we can tell you all the fucking details then. Right, Peko?”

“Yes, we can. It’s going to be next March, in the beginning of spring-“ Peko started to say, her tone almost robotic as she played along with Fuyuhiko’s little trick.

“Ah-ah, uh, is that Ibuki over there-?” Kazuichi quickly interjected, hoping to get the topic off the boring wedding crap. Geez, he just had to pick the most boring conversations to get involved in. Like he’d want to spent all night talking about a frilly, boring ass wedding he was going to be forced to go to.

Peko frowned as she was interrupted, turning her head to look in the direction Kazuichi had. “… I do believe she is out of town this weekend due to a musical performance, so I highly doubt you saw her here.”

“O-Oh. I uh- Must’a… been someone else then,” Kazuichi said, earning himself a snorting, evil laugh from Fuyuhiko. Like hell anyone would mistake someone else for Ibuki. The girl had astyle that screamed originality in every way, shape, and form. Hinata seemed to find it quite funny as well and quickly hid his smile with his cup, sipping down the rest of his drink.

“Ah, Hajime, you seem to be out of refreshments. Let me go take care of that for you.” Komaeda said sweetly, pressing a soft kiss to his boyfriend’s head. “Let me refill yours as well, Peko.”

Peko gratefully handed over her empty cup to Komaeda, nodding at him gently in a means of saying thank you. Kazuichi quickly tried to take part in this opportunity as well, holding out his one to the other as well. “Hey, Komaeda, do you think you could-“

“No.” Came the curt reply as Komaeda stood up and quickly made his way to the kitchen, ignoring the other's outstretched hand. Damn, the guy was fucking brutal. Hinata let out an awkward laugh at his boyfriend’s rather rude response, quickly trying to pretend like it had never even happened.

“So, Souda, uh, how have you been?” Hinata interjected, turning Kazuichi’s attention to him quickly. He blinked at the other and shrugged half-heartedly, not really having a response to a question like that. Nothing super interesting, at least. He was one of the few friends in his inner circle that wasn’t in a relationship, wasn’t famous in any way, and wasn’t doing anything extremely amazing.

“Eh, it’s so-so. The shop’s doing pretty good, so I can’t complain,” he said, tossing his empty cup onto the ground. Fuyuhiko rolled his eyes at the other and shook his head, as if Kazuichi’s answer was lacking in some way.

“Geez, 22 years old and you’re already talking like some depressed, midlife-crisis father. Way to fucking go, how’d you manage to do that when you haven’t even gone on a single date in the past year?” Fuyuhiko spat at him, seemingly having no limit to how much malice a single comment he made could have in it.

“Tch, you know, not everyone has the luxury of growing up with the fucking person they’re gonna fall in love with and get married to, dipshit.“

“What’d you fucking call me-!?”

“So, Souda!” Hinata quickly interjected, quelling the argument thankfully before it started, “Did you see Sonia? She’s back from Novoselic visiting again.”

Kazuichi’s eyes lit up immediately at the mention of the euro girl’s name, “Wait, really, Miss Sonia is here-!?”

Fuyuhiko was quick to speak up, his smirk telling that his next comment was going to bring the other nothing but pain. “You still fucking call her Miss Sonia? Let it go, you know how she feels about that shit. She’d probably beat your ass.”

“... Wait, no, on second thought, I’d fucking pay big bucks to see you get your ass kicked by her. Totally fucking call her that.”

Kazuichi rolled his eyes and huffed out his mouth at the other’s words, trying to pretend he wasn’t embarrassed. Which was pretty difficult, considering his face was nearly the same color as his hair. “Shut up, I know she’s gay an’ shit. Stop giving me hell about it.”

Komaeda took this opportunity to return, his hands full with three plastic cups of beer. One for Hinata, one for Peko, and one for himself. Kazuichi watched as the other plopped down next to Hinata and snaked an arm around his shoulders, pulling him just a tad closer as he tried to fill himself in on the conversation he’d missed.

“Hm? Oh, yeah, Sonia’s a lesbian. Such great news, is it not, Kazuichi?” Komaeda said, smiling quite insincerely at Kazuichi. As if he hadn’t known that for past two years since she had come out. Fuck, Komaeda was weird. The fact that he called everyone by their first name was just… unsettling. The guy had no limits to personal space and what was and wasn’t appropriate.

“… Yeah. Look, you guys know where she went? I wanna stop by and say hi,” Kazuichi mumbled, moving to stand and shoving his hands in his pockets.

Peko pointed over to the hallway crowded with their friends. “I believe she is out in the backyard with Chiaki and Tanaka.”

Oh. Fucking great. So Gundam Tanaka was here. Probably the friend he got along with the least in their group. They didn’t hate each other like they had back in high school, but they certainly didn’t hang out together alone. Not only was he a total nut job, he talked in weird fucking riddles that the other could barely understand. Plus, most of the time he smelled like a horse. Kazuichi sighed heavily and said his goodbyes to the others as he headed for the kitchen to grab a quick drink before making his way to the hallway to venture outside.

The night air was crisp and refreshing and Kazuichi was sort of glad he wasn’t completely drunk yet, meaning he was still able to enjoy the feeling. The backyard was small and overrun with weeds, but that didn’t seem to stop any of their guests from making use of the space. An observation of his surroundings revealed that Akane and Nekomaru were having some sort of weird dancing competition near the pool, and Koizumi and Saionji were huddled together by the raging bonfire, giggling and whispering amongst each other. Fucking adorable ass lesbians. Kazuichi was a little jealous.

His eyes eventually settled on the form of Sonia and his other friends, and he quickly headed over, hoping he wasn’t about to intrude on anything super personal. Not that he’d care if he did, he just really didn’t want to get caught in another boring conversation. “Hey, Sonia-!”

The girl turned around to see the pink haired male advancing in her direction, a look of pleasant uncertainty across her face as she acknowledged him. “Oh, hello, Souda. It is nice to see you again.”

Kazuichi flashed her a simple smile and sheepishly rubbed at the back of his neck. “Yeah, it’s nice to see you too. I was just… really happy to hear you were in town. It’s nice to have you back for a bit.”

Sonia blinked once, twice, and then her face split into a large grin, immediately pulling the other into a quick little hug. The relief that radiated off her was obvious, and Kazuichi couldn’t help the guilt that formed in his chest. He had spent so long pursuing the girl in high school and college, she was always extremely hesitant to greet him in public. “It is most certainly nice to be back! I am not staying for long, but I was lucky enough to be here for the party!”

Kazuichi was pleased to return the hug, quickly pulling away as to not make the girl uncomfortable in anyway. At least she was seemingly pleased to see him, unlike most people he’d met tonight. He certainly wasn’t the most… popular of the friend circle. Could a group of 30+ friends even be called a fucking circle? Ugh, Whatever. He blinked when he caught sight of Gundam and Chiaki staring at him, most presumably waiting for some kind of greeting or acknowledgment.

“Um… Hey, Chiaki… Tanaka, what’s up?” he started cautiously. He wasn’t afraid of Chiaki, that was for sure; She was just a sweet girl who liked video games and insisted that people address her by her first name. Gundam was another story. The guy was, as mentioned earlier, a complete fucking nutcase. If forced to choose between staying the night with Teruteru or with Gundam, he would choose Teruteru by a long shot.

“Hello, Souda.” Chiaki greeted pleasantly, giving him a sleepy smile. Kazuichi didn’t know why, but the girl always seemed to be ready to knock out at any given moment. He’d seen her fall asleep in the weirdest places. Like on a rollercoaster at the county fair, or in the middle of lunch, her head suddenly being cradled against the table in her arms. Gundam simply pulled his scarf up over his mouth and turned his gaze to the side, either pretending he hadn’t heard Kazuichi greet him or that he was too good to respond. Why was he even wearing a scarf? It wasn’t like it was cold- the guy was even wearing a black, short sleeved button up as proof!

“I was just telling them about how things are going in my country! Chiaki is going to come visit me next month for a few weeks, so I am very excited!” Sonia exclaimed, moving to push a piece of her blonde hair behind her ear. He definitely didn’t miss the fond look the two girls shared to each other, immediately understanding what was going on here. Just what he needed. More cute ass lesbian friends. Well, good for Sonia. As long as she was happy, that’s really all that mattered.

“That sounds really cool. I’m happy for you two,” Kazuichi said to the three of them, his eyes moving once more to Gundam to give him another look. Of course, he wasn’t responding. He was weird like that. Kazuichi wasn’t even really sure if he wanted him to speak. Last time Kazuichi had tried to start a conversation with the guy at Sonia’s birthday dinner, he’d gotten an earful about some lizards the guy was breeding and their… sexual dysfunction.

“Uh-huh! It is going to be, how do you say, a hella fun time!” Sonia continued, using her rather awkward excuse for slang. Some kinda foreign thing, he’d always assumed. He only offered her a small smile, bringing his cup to his lips as he sipped at his beer, hoping the effects of his drinking would start to buzz his mind soon enough.

“Yes, I am looking forward to it too.” Chiaki said, her voice quiet and reserved as she sided up a little closer to Sonia. The two girls were soon giggling, quite enwrapped in conversation with each other. Kazuichi almost felt kind of like he was intruding on something if it weren’t for the fact that Gundam was staring his way in between the two of him.

He started a mental debate with himself on whether or not he should engage the other in conversation. What was the worst that could happen? Well actually, the guy could start talking about cow mating rituals again or something and- oh, fuck, was he staring? He was totally staring right at Gundam. Dammit. Fuck it, you know what. He was just gonna do it. There was enough alcohol at this party to get him through the night. One little conversation wouldn’t kill him.

**Task: Have a Conversation with Gundam Tanaka  - START!**

“Hey, Tanaka, so... uh, how’s the business?”

Alright. Good start. Casual, professional, adult small talk. No room for any weird talk about animal sex or demon rituals. Damn, Kazuichi had this socialization thing down great.

“The gods of this world have looked upon me fortunately and have granted me success in my business endeavors.”

Hm… yeah.

_Yeah…_

Gundam Tanaka had no literal idea what a normal conversation was. Kazuichi felt his brain screaming inside of him, and he desperately wished he had been drunk enough to get away with actually screaming out loud. Unfortunately, two plastic solo cups half full of beer wasn’t even enough to get Chihiro Fujisajki buzzed. What the actual fuck was wrong with this guy?

Kazuichi’s internal struggle didn’t go unnoticed by the other, and Gundam heaved a dramatic sigh punctuated by an eye roll. “It means it’s going well, mortal.”

“… Oh. Uh-huh, yeah. That’s great.”

**Task: Have a conversation with Gundam Tanaka - FAILED!**

As if on cue, Sonia turned to the two adult men, a wavering of mischief present in her eyes as she viewed them. Almost as if she… knew something. She bit her plump bottom lip with her teeth as she smiled, her arm moving fluidly to link with Chiaki’s. Damn, how did girls manage to look flawless doing literally anything?

“Me and Chiaki are going to talk with Mahiru and Saionji. It was very nice to see you two!” she cooed at them, her tone making it very well obvious that the two men were not allowed to accompany them to their lesbian club meeting. Not like Kazuichi would want to join anyway. They were probably just going to talk about interior design and… whatever else lesbian people liked.  

“Oh… Well, yeah, it was nice seeing you too, Sonia,” Kazuichi said, offering her a smile, trying his best to mask his horror about being left alone with the man from hell. Literally, that’s where the guy insisted he came from.

“Likewise.” Was all Gundam retorted, crossing his arms over his chest as the two girls waved their goodbyes. As he watched the retreating forms of the two, he was silently aware of the increasing tension between him and the gothic man. Welp, time to make his escape.

“… So, glad to hear about the business, Tanaka. It was… nice talking to you,” he said, already taking a few tiny steps backward. Gundam just turned his head and watched him.

And took a step in his direction.

Kazuichi’s mind blanked and he immediately took another step back out of pure habit, hearing the grass crunch beneath his sneakers. Wait- what? When had it gotten so quiet? The music had greatly decreased in volume, leaving the two men standing in there in what felt like a suffocating silence.

Gundam simply took two more steps towards him. Kazuichi screamed in his head like a little girl caught indecently by her friends. Why the fuck was the other following him? Shit, maybe Kazuichi had offended him and he was going to kick his ass now. That was just what he needed to top off this night.

Kazuichi pushed his luck and took one more step backward, attempting to see if the other would follow him once again.

“Mortal, what are you doing?”

Ah. So the other _was_ following him. _Great._

“I, uh… I was gonna go get some snacks or something. Are you… gonna follow me?” he inquired quietly, moving slowly away as if the other were poisonous. Actually now that he thought about it, he mildly remembered him blabbering about being full of poison once before in high school. Fucking weirdo. Gundam’s face twisted in what seemed like embarrassment for a moment, his ringed hand coming quickly to pull his scarf over his mouth.

“I… I am not following you, foolish mortal. I am simply accompanying you... I mean-” Gundam quickly sputtered out, yanking his scarf even higher to the point he was almost hiding his eyes. If he had an expression on his face, Kazuichi couldn’t tell.

“… Oh. Uh, that’s fine with me. I just didn’t think you’d wanna hang out with me is all,” he shrugged as he turned back toward the house, taking a few steps off the grass. He caught the sight of Saionji staring at him quite deviously, her little hand moving to make a cut throat motion at him. Jesus Christ, was she a fucking gremlin or what? Either that, or she was just drunk. Probably just the first one though. Christ.

Gundam suddenly looked very uncomfortable for some reason, like he had the world’s biggest wedgie going on in his pants. Which, Kazuichi knew, was impossible since the other went commando everywhere. Still, he followed him back into the house, passing by a particularly drunk Junko attempting to grind on everyone on the way there. Who the fuck even invited her, anyway? All of his friends pretty much despised her since she only ever caused mischief.

“So, do you just really like me all of a sudden, or do you not have anyone else to hang out with?” Kazuichi prompted as they rounded the corner into the kitchen, his mouth watering at the sight of all the snacks they had laid out earlier before the party. He was quick to grab two plastic plates, passing one to Gundam out of politeness, and started loading up on various snacks to fill himself with.

“Yes… The second thing you said. I am not in your presence because I have any liking to you, simply because you seem to be one of the less insufferable fools,” he said, eyes skimming over the greasy snacks. Kazuichi watched the other as he slowly slid his plate onto the counter, wondering why he wasn’t going for anything that was set out.

“You ain’t hungry or anything? Look, these mozzarella sticks are to die for here. I mean, yeah, they’re fucking store bought, but still-“

Gundam silenced him with a single hand raised, shaking his head firmly.

“Vegan.”

Kazuichi blinked at the other’s word, his brain faltering him for a moment. Vegan? Shit, what did that mean again? Something about eating grass?

“… I don’t eat any animal products, unlike you unhealthy and obese mortals.”

Kazuichi huffed out an angry sigh at the obvious insult from the other, instinctively going to touch a hand to his rather flat stomach. Some fucking nerve he had, calling him fat!

“I’ll have you know, I’m nothing but 140 pounds of lean muscle!” Kazuichi countered, feeling his face slowly start to heat up when the the other chuckled lightly and even smiled. Woah, what? He should not be blushing right now. Not just from watching Gundam fucking smile at him. It was a creepy smile anyway! His… weird, perfect teeth, and his soft looking lips-

“I was not intending to call you overweight. I… apologize for implying such. You are rather petite, in fact,” Gundam said so casually, so smoothly that Kazuichi tried not to be noticeably jealous at his ability. It was hard to control his emotions; he’d never been that kind of person, so the rising heat on his cheeks was embarrassingly unpreventable. He quickly tried to dismiss his blush by turning away from Gundam and heading for the pantry, doing anything to get some distance between them.

“Can you eat pretzels? We have pretzels,” Kazuichi said hurriedly, looking over his shoulder to watch as Gundam observed a label on a can of beer. Deeming it suitable for his diet, he pulled the tab to open it, raising the can to his lips to take a sip. His eyes flitted toward Kazuichi before he slowly headed in his direction, his interest obviously piqued at the other’s offer.

“If I may observe the contents of the package, I would be eternally grateful,” he said, leaning over Kazuichi in a way that his scarf tickled the other’s nose. Oh no, he smelled really nice too. Like fucking cinnamon and brown sugar. And not horses. Kazuichi chalked up this feeling to just the buzz from the beer and nothing else, quickly shoving an unopened bag of pretzels at the other before pushing him away.

Gundam took the bag and observed the label, looking up after a few moments to flash the other a rather… enthusiastic smile. If you could even call it that. “Haha, yes! This food product contains no animal ingredients at all! Thank you, mortal, you have pleased my demonic hunger pangs.”

“Uh… Yeah, dude, whatever. Wouldn’t want you eating me instead-“

Kazuichi wanted to die. ‘Wouldn’t want you eating me?’ What the fuck was that? This was Gundam Tanaka he was talking to, not some hot chick to pick up. I mean… yeah, Gundam wasn’t ugly, but that didn’t mean he was hot either! And vegans probably wouldn’t eat humans, obviously, but-

Gundam looked at him in stunned silence for a moment, his own face beginning to heat up as he moved to pull his scarf up to cover his face. The silence was brutal, and Kazuichi wondered if the other would flick the switch on the garbage disposal if he were to fit his head inside. He debated just running off after his vaguely sexual comment, but Gundam was quick to speak up.

“While… I’m sure you would not taste undesirable, I… would never do such a thing. Unless… given the explicit consent,” Gundam said slowly, as if he were choosing his words from a lottery. Kazuichi’s mind did a memory dump on him.

Did… Gundam Tanaka just attempt to flirt back at him?

This had to be one of the most awkward moments of his life. Even more awkward than that time he’d walked in on Akane naked in the girl’s locker room, or that time he shit his pants on that 4th grade field trip. He shivered at both memories and let out a shaky sigh, his eyes moving to look down at his own plate of food. Suddenly he wasn’t so hungry.

“Um… Anyway. Yeah, do you wanna go back outside or something?” he said, feeling a heat rising up his spine and neck, almost like it wanted to choke him. Yeah, he just needed to get some fresh air. That’s all. He’d be fine, and he’d forget all about the awkward encounter. And he’d get drunk off his ass.

Gundam simply nodded in agreement silently, holding the bag of pretzels close to him as he trailed behind the other to the backyard once again. The lesbian clan had moved somewhere else, and Akane and Nekomaru were now just laying out on the grass and watching the night sky together. Junko was also nowhere to be seen either, leaving Kazuichi and Gundam a good amount of silence in the backyard except for the sounds of drumming bass from the living room.

Shit, this probably looked suspicious to Gundam. Taking him outside where they were practically alone to hang out basically screamed, ‘Hey, let’s suck each other’s dicks since you seemed down for it in the kitchen!’

No matter how much his heart and stomach screamed at him otherwise, Kazuichi’s mind was made up that he most certainly didn’t want to suck the other’s dick.

“Let’s just… sit at the pool, yeah? The bonfire’s a little too warm,” he sputtered quickly, moving to take a seat at one of the cheap sunbathing chairs as Gundam sat across from him. Not wishing to deal with anymore awkward silence, Kazuichi was quick to think of a conversation starter.

“So, uh… like, how long have you been eating like that? Y’know, no animal stuff?” he managed to get out, finding it a lot easier than he’d anticipated. He swirled a carrot in some ranch dressing on his plate and reached to pop it into his mouth, awaiting some kind of response.

Gundam seemed a little surprised at the question, looking down to the plastic bag full of pretzels that he held in his hands. Making use of this time, he opened it as well, finding it rude to not eat if Kazuichi was going to go to the trouble of eating as well. “Since I began attending high school. I paced myself well; First abstaining from dairy, and then meat, and then moving my way up to a completely herbivorous diet.”

“That’s cool, but like, why’d you do it? I mean, I love hamburgers and nachos like, way too much to do something crazy like that.”

“It’s not crazy!” Gundam protested, his expression turning sour as he nibbled on a few pretzels. “The body you possess does not need to function on the products of other living beings. The way that animals are treated in acts of slaughter is also against my practice as a god. A god loves all animals, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant.”

Kazuichi hadn’t realized how offensive his comment really was until he watched Gundam quickly try to defend himself. Damn. Of course it wasn’t crazy to him. The guy was enamored with animals. The fucking dude had carried hamsters in his scarf during their high school years. “Shit, sorry, I shouldn’t have said crazy- I just meant, like… aren’t there laws that say it’s gotta be humane and shit?”

Gundam merely chuckled at this, shaking his head so fiercely he accidentally dislodged a tiny piece of hair from his slicked up pompadour. “There are laws against murder and treason, yet filthy mortals still commit these acts everyday! You should accompany me sometime in watching a documentary that outs the way animals for slaughter are truly treated. I, myself, have seen everything, so I am not shaken, but you… you would certainly lose all desire to consume your favorite foods.”

Geez, this guy was exhausting. Absolutely crazy and exhausting… and kinda cute when he got so riled up like this. The way his voice boomed with passion and determination, and the way his eyes would sparkle as he blabbered on… was honestly really adorable. Not that it meant anything! He’d met cuter people in his life.

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. You can invite me over to watch one of your documentaries, and I’ll bring myself a double bacon cheeseburger. And a piece of lettuce for you,” he teased, popping another ranch coated carrot into his open mouth. He washed it down with a sip from his beer as well, feeling a pleasant sort of warmness settle in his chest as he watched the other sputter.

“You will do no such thing! I would never allow such a contamination of my beliefs into my own house! You would allow me to cook dinner for the both of us, perhaps a tofu stir-fry, or a vegetable medley-“ Gundam blurted out before following suit and bringing his own beer to his lips to take a large sip.

“Dude, cooking for me? That basically makes it a fucking date, sorry to tell you,” Kazuichi snorted, unable to keep himself from teasing the other. He knew it was kind of mean, but fuck, it was too funny to watch him get riled up. Gundam reeled back almost at that comment, huffing quietly to himself as if he’d just been told some sort of forbidden secret to life.

The voice that came out now was quieter, a bit meek almost, but not lost of its usual deepness and passion. “It would not be. And I was merely being humorous, as if I’d ever ask as the likes of you to accompany me on a date.”

Kazuichi simply hummed in response to that, one of his elbows coming to rest gently against his knee as he leaned forward. Man, Gundam was kind of a cutie, in a weird, half-drunken and angry kind of way. Maybe it was the alcohol that was finally starting to swim through his brain, but he almost allowed the words to slip past his lips. Had it not been for the fact that the other was shoveling pretzels into his mouth almost frantically, maybe he would have said something.

Gundam seemed to be completely aware of their awkward closeness, evident by the way his brows had furrowed together as he stared at Kazuichi questioningly.

Begrudgingly, Kazuichi leaned away and gave him some more space. The air outside had become colder and he was trying hard to pretend his feelings weren’t at least a little hurt at the other’s seemingly disgusted reaction to the idea of taking him on a date. No problem, just cover it up with a joke like always. “Oh, yeah. You wouldn’t even be able to handle all of this anyway.”

‘This’ being punctuated by some weird hip flick, a wink, and Kazuichi bursting out into a short laugh. He’d expected the conversation to change, or maybe for Gundam to stand up and walk away while he laughed like an idiot.

What he was  _not_ expecting was Gundam to stare back ferociously, eyes widening to the size of saucers as his bicolored pupils filled with fiery determination.

“Excuse me, mortal… What did you just imply?”

Kazuichi didn’t know him well, but he unfortunately knew him well enough to know that he apparently just started something he really didn’t want to be apart of. As things had finally started to become a little lighter between the two, Kazuichi just had to open his big mouth and ruin it.

“… I mean, it was just a joke-“

“Fool me not with jokes, mortal, for I am not laughing! Now tell me, what have you just implied in your statement!”

Yup, night ruined. May as well just drown himself in the pool, rather than attempt to dignify the other’s rage with a reply. “Gundam, come on, it’s just a joke-“

“I was born half-demon, I am trained in many the dark arts, you would be a splendid day in heaven compared to the feats I have conquered!” Gundam roared, the bag of pretzels dropping to the floor carelessly, “You severely underestimate the true talent of my power, for no simple mortal, even the likes of you, would be anything that I could not handle! Allow me to prove it to you!”

Kazuichi only groaned and raised his hands to cover his face a little, trying to hide any evidence of the blush spreading across his cheeks as he stared at the other between his fingers. Gundam might be sorta cute, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t a huge fucking embarrassment as well. “Yeah, yeah, I know, geez! You don’t gotta prove anything-“

“Apparently I do, mortal, since you assume you are stronger than me.”

“Dude, that’s not even what I meant in the first place! Geez, you’re such a fucking drama queen.”

As if the situation hadn’t been bad enough, Kazuichi just had to crank the notch all the way up to ‘literal tragedy’. Gundam’s eyes burned with determination and Kazuichi simply bit the bullet and tipped his head back to down the rest of his beer in one go. He would rather be shitfaced drunk for what was about to go down.

“You- You have disrespected my honor! How dare you! I am not a so-called ‘drama queen,’ I am a god of this world and you know it- You…You-!” Gundam practically shouted, pushing a finger into the center of Kazuichi’s chest. He continued to spew nonsense upon nonsense and Kazuichi felt a bitter sensation edge at the back of his throat from it.

Ugh, this guy was just… fucking terrible! He never knew when to just shut the fuck up! Things could be going better than ever, but the minute someone slipped up in the slightest Gundam would be on their asses, raging out about his weird occult shit. A minute, maybe two minutes passed, and Kazuichi was sure the other was never going to stop.

The second his head started to ache Kazuichi knew he had to stop him or he was going to bash his own brain into bloody mush on the concrete. It was obvious Gundam wasn’t going to listen either, so in his buzzed haze he quickly reached up to grab the other by the face, intending to cover his mouth or something until- He was kissing him.

What.

The.

FUCK.

Kazuichi didn’t know if he had done it out of pure habit of grabbing his face or if it was due to his drunkenness, but the other wasn’t talking anymore either, or even resisting for that matter so- Wait.

Gundam Tanaka was actually kissing him back.

In a split second the two had gone from arguing like idiots, to kissing each other fervently in rising intensity. Kazuichi’s hands dropped to Gundam’s chest after a few seconds, wringing them into his black shirt as he practically fell forward out of his own chair. Gundam was quick to wrap an arm loosely down around the other's hips as he pulled him closer, their lips moving together in a fashion that would would definitely leave bruises.

Oh, fuck. Oh fuck, oh fuck, _oh fuck_. He had never imagined what a kiss with the crazed animal lover would have been like, but even if he had, he wasn’t sure he would’ve been able to imagine it being like this. Gundam’s lips were soft and skilled along with his own and Kazuichi felt a moan rise in his throat, threatening to bubble up and out of his mouth when-

“FUCK YEAH, CANNONBALL!”

There was the sound of a splash, and suddenly both of them were soaking wet and pulling away from each other just as quickly as they’d met. What the fuck-! Kazuichi quickly turned his head towards the direction of the pool, catching sight of Akane’s brunette hair bobbing beneath the surface.

If the purge was real, Akane would be the first on his murder list.

“Akane, what the fuck, you got me- us, soaking wet!” Kazuichi shouted, not even daring to look over at Gundam to gauge his reaction on what had just happened. They had been just making out with the passion of a thousand suns, and he wasn’t sure exactly how well the other would take that.

Akane blinked at the two drenched men, a devilish grin settling across her face as she racked her brain for the response that would embarrass the two the most. “Oh, really? Y’know I’m surprised you noticed. Assumed you’d be too wrapped up suckin’ face with hamster boy.”

Fuck the purge. Akane was going to be murdered tonight.

“You- Shut the fuck up!” Kazuichi shouted, whipping his head to the side to see if Gundam might say anything in response. But alas, the other man was silent, his face a completely new shade of red. Kazuichi didn’t even have time to say anything to him, because the next moment Gundam was already up and walking away from the pool as fast as he could without running for his life.

If he had a heart, it was most certainly broken now. The other had looked so… confused, for a lack of a better word. No, that was a lie, he had looked more completely and utterly disgusted. Kazuichi wanted to just dig his own grave now and crawl inside and let himself starve to death.

Akane blinked in confusion as she watched Gundam hurriedly collect himself and head for the house, her eyes flickering back to Kazuichi for a moment before she spoke. “… What, was it something I said?”

Kazuichi just groaned.

 


	2. you're just my type (you've got a pulse and you are breathing)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alcohol did nothing to make him forget, Kazuichi still very much remembers that he kissed Gundam Tanaka last night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SOOOO AFTER 1 WEEK OF FREAKING OUT WONDERING IF ILL BE ABLE TO HANDLE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF A MUTICHAPTERED FIC
> 
> I CHURNED OUT CHAPTER 2!!!! WOOOHOOO
> 
> IM SO SORRY if its not good but i got three lovely comments from three lovely ppl who told me how much they liked it (as well as one nice person who messaged me on tumblr) AND JUST...HOOOOO BOY IM REALLY EXCITED FOR THIS FIC. me and my besto friendo lexi have TONS planned and wowwowow im excited! again my tumblr is @hopejpg so pls follow ;0
> 
> so pls enjoy chapter 2 of 'Let Your Body Do the Talking'!

The rest of the night had passed with such a blur, Kazuichi hadn’t even remembered collapsing onto his own bed at the end of it. He felt memories of running into the house and beginning to chug down as much alcohol as possible tickle the back of his brain as he slowly began to rise. The temperature in the house was down right freezing, and Kazuichi noted the way it did nothing to quell the rumbling of pain in his stomach.  

God, fuck. Last night had been awful. He felt around awkwardly for his phone, trying to find it anywhere in his sheets. The object was tucked neatly underneath his pillow and Kazuichi let out a sigh of relief as he pulled it out and attempted to power it on. He was met with a black screen that signified it had been dead for quite a while, much to his distaste. Ugh. Great.  

He slowly pushed himself away from his mattress, trying to ignore the pounding headache that was starting to form behind his skull. He didn’t have time to think about the nights previous events; one thought was forming in his head, and that was most certainly coffee.

“Mm, fuck-“ he mumbled to himself as he sat atop his bed and stared around his room. Nothing really out of place and he was pleased that there were no stragglers camping out on his floor. Dead silence triggered a ringing in his ears and he grunted in annoyance, quickly pushing himself off the bed so his feet touched the ground.

Struggling to pull a hoodie over his head, Kazuichi hobbled out of his room and down the hall towards the kitchen, barely even paying mind the the fact that his house was basically in ruins. Plastic cups, paper plates, napkins, and god fuck, was that vomit on his carpet? Fucking leave it to his friends to be disgusting like that. He sidestepped the mess on the floor, making a mental reminder to make Leon clean it up as he turned the corner into the kitchen.

“Oh, you’re up. Sup, man?” Leon greeted suddenly, shocking Kazuichi out of his half-sleepy state. Ugh, how was the other up so early? He was pretty sure that he didn’t even see Leon step out of bed until noon on days he wasn’t hungover. 

Kazuichi shrugged in response, moving past the other to check the coffee pot for any signs of brewing. The machine was already bubbling to life in the kitchen, and Kazuichi felt the chill start to leave his body just from the aroma. A nice, hot, and perfectly spiced cup of coffee was exactly what he needed.

“Nothing. Hungover as fuck. What’s got your ass so perky?” he grumbled, leaning against the counter as he fumbled lightly with his phone in his hand. The urge to check his social media's was getting stronger and he sighed to himself as he turned on his heel towards the charger they kept in the kitchen to plug it in.

Leon just shrugged and let a hand of his to push his red hair back and out of his face. “Didn’t do much drinking last night. Sayaka wants to go to some farmers market this morning.”

Ah. So that was it. Kazuichi pushed a gathering of cups into the sink to clear space for his phone, turning back towards the other to look at him. He mentally debated on whether or not he should go ahead and make some breakfast, feeling his stomach do a little flip at the thought of cereal. Yeah, probably should just go ahead and skip it for the time being.

“…Soooo, I saw you having fun last night.”

Kazuichi paused, a slow dread gently creeping into his stomach as he stared at the counter beside his roommate. Fuck it all. He had been hoping to avoid any and all confrontation about his drunken kiss with Gundam, but apparently someone had let the cat out of the bag already. He heaved the heaviest of sighs, his hand pressing against his eyes as if to shield Leon’s judgement.

“Ugh, shut up. The last thing I wanna remember is kissing Gundam Tanaka.”

 Kazuichi expected a reply. Maybe a laugh, or even so much as a noise of disgust. But yet, there was silence from his friend. Kazuichi raised an eyebrow and slowly lowered his hand from his eyes to slowly meet the stunned gaze of Leon.

 Oh, _fuck._

 “You… You fucking kissed Tanaka?!” Leon shouted loudly, his hand coming to hold his head in shock, “Shit! Dude! I never knew you’d go for a guy like him-!”

 Kazuichi knew he should have kept quiet. Fucking guy couldn’t keep his mouth shut if his life depended on it. He nearly tripped as he lunged forward to attempt to cover the others mouth and keep his loud outburst from disturbing anyone who was sleeping. “Shh, Leon! Shut up, you’re going to fucking wake up the whole fucking neighborhood-!”

 As if on cue, Maizono rounded the corner, her hair tied up into a small bun and the night before’s make-up smudged every which way. Kazuichi liked Maizono, she was sweet and she sometimes brought him coffee or a treat when she stopped by to see Leon. But, despite that, he knew how wrathful she could be early in the morning. Especially when she was hungover. Her soft eyes glared at the two in the kitchen, and Leon quickly jumped away from Kazuichi to greet her.

 “B-Babe, morning-!” he said, quickly throwing his head back to look at the coffee machine before turning his attention to her once more. “Uh, coffee’s almost done, there's aspirin in my bedside drawer, and we’ll be quieter, okay?”

 Maizono eyed Leon’s face for a moment, full hesitation in her eyes before she wrinkled them shut and sighed. “…Whatever. I’m going back to bed. I want four sugars in my cup.”

 Leon shot her one of his winning smiles and swooped down to give her a soft peck on the lips, something she returned half-heartedly in her sleepy state. Kazuichi couldn’t suppress the way his eyes rolled at the affection the two shared. “Nothing but the best for you, babe.”

 Maizono wasted no time quietly padding her way back down the hallway, her movements slow as she retreated back to Leon’s room, the door shutting quietly behind her. Both of the men looked at each other and let a loud sigh of relief pass between them at the avoided conflict. Leon clutched the counter for dramatic effect as he hurried back over to the other, his eyes full of questions and theories.

 “Okay, dude, alright- Let’s start from square one.” he hurried out, grabbing Kazuichi’s arm and yanking him to take a seat at the kitchen table. “How and by what means did you end up fucking mackin’ on Gundam Tanaka last night?”

 Kazuichi let himself be grabbed to take a seat, although all he really wanted to do at this point was curl up and die a little. Ugh. This was definitely not how he wanted to spend his morning. He threw himself into the seat and propped his head up with his hand, struggling to remember all the details in the haze of the hangover. “I dunno, man, honestly- First of all it was an accident, and second of all, we were not fuckin’ making out.”

 Leon rolled his eyes at the pink-haired man, leaning back in his chair as he waved a hand at him. “Yeah, yeah, I don’t care about the technicalities, just tell me what the fuck happened and how before I call Tanaka up myself.”

 The mechanic most certainly didn’t want happening, quickly struggling to pull a few jumbled thoughts together to form the bigger picture. “Okay, okay- So, I was talking to Miss Sonia, and he was there being all fucking weird and silent, right? Well, Miss Sonia goes off to hang with Chiaki, and it’s just me n’ him and I’m like, well, shit! Because I don’t wanna hang out with him. But, get this: the dude starts fucking following me-”

 Leon nodded along as the other explained, his expression turning more and more amused as Kazuichi continued. He didn’t dare try to interject, simply leaning against his seat as his friend went off about how annoying Gundam was, and how he wouldn’t just leave him alone.

 “… and then, after I give him the pretzels, we go outside and we’re just sitting and talking. But then, lucky me, I piss him the fuck off; So he’s fucking raging out on me, and I feel like I might kill him if I can’t get him to stop. So, I… I, uh… I grabbed his face, and I was gonna cover his mouth, but-“

 “You kissed him instead?” Leon cut in at the end, his tone high and laced with the desire to burst out laughing, “Oh my god, fucking priceless. Damn, I wish I had been there to see you two.”

 “Shut up, it’s not fuckin’ funny! Akane ruined it by jumping in the pool and getting us wet, so he just fucking ran off afterwards!” Kazuichi hissed, feeling his headache grow worse. He tried to ignore the tiny heartache when the memory of the other bolting away surfaced in his mind, but it was hard not to. Anyone would feel like that if someone ran off after kissing them, right? It wasn’t because… he liked the other man or anything-

 “Oh, come on, Kazu,” Leon snorted, shaking his head at the other, “Stop acting like it’s the end of the world, he probably doesn’t even remember. Plus, so far, me and Akane are the only one’s that know, right?”

 Kazuichi pursed his lips in a pout as his eyes slid shut, letting a sigh escape his nose. Yeah, that was true. The other probably didn’t remember it at all, and the only ones who should know were Akane and Leon. “… Yeah, I guess so. I’m pretty sure Akane was the only one who saw.”

 “Yeah, dude, just… take it easy. It’s fucking hilarious, but I doubt anyone besides us knows.” Leon replied, giving the other a half-assed smile as he clapped him on the shoulder. A loud beep from the coffee machine caught the men’s attention, and Leon was quick to get up and make his way over for a cup. Kazuichi raised his hand at the other as a means of telling to make him a cup as well before slowly sliding back in his chair as he tried to forget the whole mess with Gundam.

 “By the way, man, your phone is back on.”

 “Huh? Oh. Thanks,” Kazuichi mumbled, his head turning to look over at his phone plugged into the wall. Should he even check it? What if Gundam Tanaka was texting him and wanted to know about what happened last night? Ugh. With his luck, he wouldn’t be surprised if the other showed up later at his house.

 Eventually, with extreme hesitation, he pulled himself up and out of his chair to drag himself over to the counter. The phone stared back at him mockingly, as if to tease him, and Kazuichi felt an urge to smash the screen in. But he couldn’t do that. He kind of needed this phone. He slowly reached for it and took a deep breath, summoning all his courage as he pressed the ‘home’ button to turn it on.

 Of course, nothing in his life could be simple. Nothing that could stay secret, would stay secret. His friend’s were fucking assholes; they were nosy, bitchy, assholes who couldn’t keep their noses out of other people's business.

 24 text messages. 24 _fucking_ text messages, and nearly every single one was about his kiss with Gundam. He could feel his insides going cold and the urge to vomit burning in the back of his throat as he stared at the notifications from everyone he fucking knew. Most of them had been sent sometime in the early hours after midnight, but some were as recent as twenty minutes before.

 **Akane, 2:30 am:** ‘sorry i ruined ur sloppy make outs with gundam lolololol u want me to talk to him for u??’

 

 **Fuyuhiko, 3:11 am:** ‘So I heard you kissed the hamster fuck, you gay motherfucker.’

 

 **Mahiru, 4:07 am:** ‘Hey if you and gundam need a wedding photographer im free. But seriously what??’

 

 **Sonia, 4:54 am:** ‘Omg!!! Kazuichi i heard i am so happy you and gundam are finally becoming closer!! You two are so perfect!’

 

 **Hajime, 6:43 am:** ‘dude call me asap’

 

 **Hajime, 7:02 am:** ‘DUDE CALL ME RIGHT NOW OR IM COMING OVER’

Kazuichi screamed in pure despair and sank to the floor among the trash, curling up like a bug. He was in his element. Leon nearly dropped his coffee in shock, turning around with wide eyes the size of saucers as he stared at the other.  
  
“What the fuck, dude-!” he shouted, his eyes searching for any signs of life as his friend curled on the floor. Kazuichi didn’t even bother with a reply as he held his phone, simply thrusting his arm out for the other to take it. This had to be a nightmare. A terrible nightmare and he would just wake up any minute now- 

“OH MY GOD-” Leon was laughing as he read the other’s phone, his hand shooting out to brace himself against the counter. “Oh, fuck, that’s some good shit right there! Ohhh, fuck, dude, that’s hilarious.”

 Kazuichi wished that he could just melt into the floor like a slime and disappear forever. How the fuck did everyone know? Had someone else seen? Maybe Akane had gotten too drunk and started running her mouth. Leon simply tossed his phone back to him on the ground, managing to nail him right in the face as he did so.

 “I mean, I know you wanted to keep it a secret, but this isn’t that bad. Now that everyone knows, you don’t gotta go to all the trouble of hiding anything!”  
Yeah. If only that was the real truth. Kazuichi just groaned and rolled onto his back on the kitchen tiles, feeling the cool stone against his hands. “My life is over. This is it, I’m going to die. Tell my dad I’ll see him in hell.”  
  
Leon rolled his eyes at the others shamelessly pathetic displays, turning his attention back to the coffee machine to continue with preparing his cups.  Kazuichi couldn’t imagine the situation getting any worse, and in the back of his head he knew that Hinata was already enroute to his house.

“GOOD MORNING KUWATA AND SOUDA!”

 Kazuichi snapped his head over to the left, his eyes meeting Ishimaru’s bright red ones. Yup. It was worse. 

“Mornin’, Ishimaru,” Leon greeted politely, raising a cup of coffee at the man. Ishimaru gave a polite salute as he stepped over Kazuichi’s body to reach the coffee machine, intent on a cup for himself. The man was covered in deep purple hickies, a certain confirmation of how he’d spent his night before. Kazuichi sneered inside his head. Gross.  
  
“Souda, I demand you get off the floor! It has to be disgustingly filthy,” Ishimaru commented, pointing down accusingly at the man, “Stand up immediately and face the morning like a man!” 

Leon snickered at this and stepped around Kazuichi as he blew into his cup, intent on heading back to his room. “He can’t face the morning. He’s still hung up about his kiss with Tanaka last night.”

Kazuichi could have fucking killed Leon right then and there. Of course he just had to go and blab about the kiss to Ishimaru, the man who literally had no self control when it came to gossip. Ishimaru’s red eyes blinked at Leon’s words, his head snapping down to the mechanic on the floor quickly.

 “Really! Well, Souda, I still demand you get up! No kiss should render you incapable!” he said confidently as he poured himself a cup of coffee, “No matter how lovesick you feel, you must power through!”

 Kazuichi just groaned even louder at the other’s words, feeling his face heat up considerably at the word ‘lovesick’. “I’m not fuckin’ lovesick! I’m embarrassed, Ishimaru, so just stop talking about it!”

 “Embarrassed? There is no reason to be embarrassed! True love should never be embarrassing!” he said, his hand curling up into a fist as he stared at the other with a fiery smile. Oh, fucking christ, was this guy fucking with him? Leon seemed to be enjoying the scene as well, hiding his snickers as he sucked down a cup of coffee at record speed.

 “It’s not- It’s not true love!” Kazuichi snapped, sitting up straighter to glare at the other man in front of him, “I said stop talking about it!”

 Ishimaru crossed his arms tightly across his chest, his chin raising as he stared down at the other over his nose. “Fine! I will refrain from commenting further, but I advise you still get off the floor!”

 Kazuichi rubbed tiredly at his face, eventually deciding that the tile probably wasn’t the best place to have his mental breakdown. He could at least agree with Ishimaru on that. He slowly gripped the counter to hoist himself up and stand on his shaky feet with a regretful sigh. Ugh. He just wanted to drink himself into a second hangover at this point. His phone was still sitting mockingly on the floor and he slowly bent down to pick it up, wishing he could just throw the damn thing away.

 Leon had grown bored of Kazuichi’s crisis and had retreated back to his room to cuddle up with Maizono until she wanted to leave for the farmers market. Kazuichi stumbled awkwardly to the coffee machine in the process of grabbing his phone as well, using a shaky hand to grab his mug from the cupboard before him and pour himself a cup. Ishimaru just hummed quietly to himself as he prepared coffee for himself and Mondo, and Kazuichi wished he could do something to shut him up.

 He was about to snap at the other to stop humming, which would have most certainly lead to an argument, when he heard the sound of the doorbell from the hall to signal someone was here. Oh, great. Yeah. He pushed himself away from the counter with a sigh, heading for the front door to greet whoever was here to see him. Although, deep down, he kind of already knew.

 “Hey, what’s up-“ he grunted out as he threw open the front door, staring unenthusiastically at the pair. Hinata was standing there in sweats, his expression unreadable and hair a mess as he pushed himself inside immediately. So much for a greeting.

 He certainly wasn’t alone either, because Komaeda was trailing in after him as well, dressed nearly identical with a Starbucks cup tucked gently into his hand as he smiled. At least he seemed to be in a better mood than the night before. Probably due to the fact his neck was covered in hickeys as well, and Hinata was walking a bit more rigid as if his back was bothering him.

 “Good morning, Kazuichi,” Komaeda greeted, raising his cup at the other, “Did you know it’s pumpkin spice latte season already?”

 Kazuichi rolled his eyes at the two intruders, quickly shutting the front door to block out the cool October morning chill. “Yeah, that’s great, Komaeda. Really happy for you. Now why the fuck are you two in my house so early?”

 Komaeda hummed quietly to himself as Hinata turned suddenly to the other, his eyes wide and confused as he stared him down. Ugh. This wasn’t going to be good.

 “I told you to call me, and you didn’t. So that’s why we turned up here,” he said, motioning to himself and Komaeda, “Now, tell me. Why are all our friends saying you and Tanaka hooked up last night?”

Kazuichi froze at the others words, the words ‘hooked up’ bouncing around in his head as he tried to process what the other had just said. Hooked… up? People thought he and Gundam hadn’t just kissed, but had full on fucking sex? What the fuck? His face burned at the thought, and Komaeda chuckled lightly.

 “Look, Hajime, he’s blushing. It must be true then!”

 Kazuichi sputtered at the white haired man, his face deepening even further in color. Hinata was staring at him in a way that said he believed Komaeda, and Kazuichi wanted to push the two back out onto the porch and crawl back to his room.

 “It’s not true! What the fuck, I didn’t fuck Tanaka last night!” he shouted, glaring daggers in Komaeda’s direction. The crazy motherfucker gave him a disapproving look at his outburst, slowly shaking his head as he brought his drink to his lips again. Hinata just sighed and ran a hand through his messy brown hair, taking a step forward so Kazuichi wouldn’t try to strangle his boyfriend.

 “Okay, if it’s not true, then why does everyone have a picture of you two making out in front of your pool out back?” Hinata questioned. Komaeda brought his latte to his lips and sipped it loudly, his eyes wide in anticipation as he awaited the other's response.  
  
“That’s it! We just made out a little and- You said there’s a picture?” He said, his insides running cold as he processed the words. Komaeda was still sipping loudly from his cup, his mouth split into a strange grin before Hinata reached over and plucked the drink out of his hands to silence him. Thank fucking god.

 Hinata sighed once again on behalf of his boyfriend. “Yeah, there’s a picture being sent around. I don’t know who took it, but Mahiru texted it to me last night. She said she wasn’t the one who took it, though.”

 Why couldn’t anything in his life just work out the way he wanted it to? His entire life seemed to be centered around the idea of screwing him over as hard as it could at any given opportunity. Kazuichi brought his hands to face and rubbed aggressively at his eyes, realizing sadly he hadn’t even managed a single cup of coffee yet.  
  
“Maybe we should have brought him a drink too. It’s my fault for being so careless…” Komaeda trailed off, bringing his index finger to his bottom lip as he thought. Kazuichi peeked at the others through his fingers to gauge some kind of emotion from them. Hinata just stared at the other a bit helplessly, still clutching Komaeda’s own drink in his hand. Ugh, his friends were weirdos.

 “No, s’fine.” Kazuichi mumbled, slowly pulling his hands away from his face to reveal his tired, puffy eyes. “I just… I-”

 “HINATA! KOMAEDA!” Ah, fuck.

 Ishimaru stood at the entrance of the kitchen, his chest puffed out proudly as he balanced a plate of toast (no butter) atop two coffee cups. “Good morning! It is a pleasure to see you two have risen so early, especially after a night of shenanigans!”  
  
Hinata just gave the other some vague wave in form of a greeting, and Komaeda smiled earnestly at Ishimaru. The other thankfully didn’t stay long, and was quick to excuse himself to retreat back to Mondo’s room, the door shutting politely behind him. Kazuichi rubbed at his eyes again after the other was finally out of sight, finally turning back to the two intruders in his living room.  
  
“Look, here isn’t a good place to talk. Can we go somewhere else if we’re really gonna go into all the fucking details about last night?”

 Hinata was silent for a moment as he thought it over, eventually turning his gaze to Komaeda to give him a ‘why not’ shrug. “Yeah, we can go get breakfast. Do you have any idea where you want to go?”

 Komaeda’s eyes lit up before Kazuichi could even begin his thought process, “Oh, Hajime, let’s go to Denny’s! I want to build my own grand slam!”

Hinata turned his attention back to Kazuichi with a questioning look, silently asking if what Komaeda suggested was alright with him. He simply rolled his eyes at the brown haired male and nodded, moving to head down the hall. “I’ll meet you in the car. I need some pants.”  
  
And with that, he turned on his heel to hurry off to his room. He could hear Hinata and Komaeda begin to chatter as they headed back outside, and Kazuichi knew right then and there that this day was going to be excruciatingly long. Hopefully God would just strike him down at some point out of kindness to save him from it.

 However, if the mornings actions hadn’t been proof enough, God was obviously not kind to Kazuichi Souda.

* * *

 

 The ride to the diner was… interesting to say the least. If you could call ‘annoying as fuck’ interesting in any way. Hinata had tried to blast music at a volume unacceptable for such an early hour and Komaeda had been quick to lower it. This lead to a small conflict over control of the dial, Hinata turning it up loudly, and Komaeda lowering it back. It continued for about five minutes straight before Kazuichi reached up from the backseat to turn the radio off altogether.

 Then, because things could never just be fucking simple with these two, Komaeda insisted driving an extra twenty minutes out of the way just so they could go to the Denny’s where Koizumi worked.

 “But what’s the fun in going to Denny’s if Mahiru can’t wait on us!” he had protested, giving Hinata a small pout. Kazuichi groaned loudly from the back as threw his head against the neck rest of his seat. He just wanted coffee and a plate of pancakes stacked almost as high as the ceiling. Hinata simply shook his head at his boyfriend, fully intent on driving to the nearest location.

 “Ko, that’s like an extra 17 miles,” Hinata scoffed when Komaeda still hadn’t stopped pouting five minutes later. Kazuichi thanked the heavens from inside his head. The last thing he wanted to see was even more of their friends on this morning from hell. At least Hinata was smart and reasonable, unlike most of the others. He wasn’t going to make a simple trip to breakfast any harder-

 “I understand, but Mahiru always gives discounts when we eat there!”

 Kazuichi snorted at the others argument, sinking further into his seat as he propped his arms up behind his head. As far as he was concerned, Hinata had already made up his mind. He waited for Hinata to refuse once more, feeling a small little dread in his stomach when Hinata didn’t even so much as sigh. He opened an eye to get a look at the other’s face and the resolve he had felt melted in his stomach.

 “... Yeah, that’s true. We are kind of short on cash this week.”

 He turned the car around to start driving in the opposite direction, and Kazuichi wondered what the headlines would say if he opened the door and threw himself out of the moving car. “Hungover Man Tortured by Memories of Awkward Kiss the Night Before Throws Himself out Moving Vehicle’. Yeah, that had a nice ring to it.

 So, they had continued to the diner on the opposite end of the earth, and Kazuichi unfortunately didn’t throw himself out of the moving car. They had parked near the entrance and Komaeda was quick to hurry inside before the other two in an excitement to get them a booth.  
  
Hinata gave Kazuichi one of the fakest smiles he’d seen as they walked toward the entrance. “Look, it’s just Mahiru. I doubt she’ll mock you or anything for anything about your… um… issue.”  
  
Kazuichi snorted. Yeah, right. Sure. Koizumi would probably weedle bits of information out of them with the promise to keep quiet,  only to blab everything to her tiny, blonde girlfriend later. Then Saionji would make sure everyone knew every little detail, and Kazuichi’s life would be over x2.

 Komaeda was talking up a storm with Koizumi from behind the counter, the red-headed girl looking everything but enthusiastic or happy to see him. Her eyes drifted to the other two men as they entered the restaurant, her eyes blinking before her face split into a… somewhat happy smile. It still looked a bit forced in Kazuichi’s opinion.  
  
“Hey, Hajime,” she greeted, her hand disappearing behind the counter to pull out two more plastic menus. “Nagito here was telling me all about lover-boys problems.”

 Kazuichi choked on his spit, and Hinata brought his hand to his eyes as he let out a heavy sigh. Komaeda just smiled at them earnestly, taking his boyfriend’s hand in his own as they began to follow Koizumi to the booth he had requested. Of course, Kazuichi ended up sitting all by himself on one side. Not that he was complaining, really. He had no desire to sit by Komaeda or Hinata.

“Sooo, since I know you guys, I’m not going to bother with any of the specials,” Koizumi simply stated, dropping the menus onto the table and taking out a little pad of paper from the front pocket of her apron, “Tell me what you want to drink.”

 “I’ll have orange juice,” Hinata said, slowly sliding two of the menus over in his and Komaeda’s direction, “Nagito just wants hot chocolate.”

 Koizumi rolled her eyes when Hinata ordered for Komaeda, but wrote it down onto her little paper pad nonetheless. She turned her head to Kazuichi and immediately broke out into a smile when she saw him, using her paper pad to cover her mouth as she giggled. Kazuichi glared. Why did Koizumi have to mock him?

She seemed to notice that he wasn’t taking a liking to her giggling and quickly cleared her throat, pulling her pad away from her mouth as it twitched with a smile. “Sorry, sorry. Just- What do you want, Souda?”  
  
“I’ll just take two coffees. Thanks,” he grunted out, pulling the last remaining menu toward him. Koizumi wrote his order down as well and excused herself to go prepare the drinks, immediately breaking out into even more giggles once she was two tables away. Kazuichi simply stretched his arms onto the table and buried his face in them, letting out a loud groan. This was a bad fucking idea.  
  
Hinata was quiet for a moment as he watched Kazuichi’s little breakdown, turning his head to look at Komaeda questioningly. Komaeda simply shrugged with his hands up, nudging his boyfriend in a way that meant to start prying.

 “... So, Kazuichi,” Hinata started, leaning into the table a bit, “... You… wanna talk about last night?”

 “No.”

 Hinata frowned, turning his head to Komaeda as if to say ‘Now what?’ Komaeda raised a single finger and smiled, slowly rising from his side of the booth to slide in next to Kazuichi. The pink-haired man immediately lifted his head and glared at him, trying to look as threatening as possible as Komaeda smiled at him.

 “If you don’t tell us what happened, I won’t pay for your food,” Komaeda said, his smile becoming a tad bit forced, “Not only am I a man of my word, I also know you forgot your wallet at home.”

 Kazuichi blinked. _No-_ He quickly reached for his pant pockets, only to find his phone tucked into the left one and his wallet most certainly not in the right. He let out a small cry of desperation at this, immediately throwing his head back into his arms. Komaeda’s smile never strayed as he rose from Kazuichi’s side of the booth, sliding in next to his boyfriend once more. Hinata just glared at him.

 “What? Hajime, we didn’t just bring him here to feed him!” Komaeda said, giving the other boy a small pout as they waited for the mechanic to start speaking. Kazuichi slowly lifted his head out of his arms and wiped at his eyes with his hand, letting out a huff of anger.  
  
“Fine. You wanna know what happened? I kissed Tanaka. That’s what happened,” he spat at them bitterly, sinking back into the booth with his arms crossed over his chest, “We kissed, Akane ruined it, and he ran off and I didn’t see him for the rest of the night. We for sure didn’t hook up.”  
  
Koizumi had just returned with a serving tray topped with their drinks of choice, and also very conveniently in time to hear the better part of Kazuichi’s comment. She made a face of disgust as she set the drinks onto the table and took her pad of paper out once again to start taking orders.

 “Ugh, look, I’m sure all our friends wanna know about you frenching Gundam, but can you stop complaining so I can take your order?” she huffed out, waving her pen in Kazuichi’s face. He felt like biting off the end and spitting it at her shoes.  
  
“Sorry, Mahiru, uh-” Hinata quickly picked up his menu to look at it for a moment, “I’ll just have pancakes with eggs and a side of hash browns.”

 Koizumi was quick to write down Hinata’s order as he read it off to her and then Komaeda’s as well, a couple sunny side up eggs, before slowly turning to Kazuichi for his as well. He glared at her for a short moment, slowly picking up his menu to hand it to her.  
  
“I’ll just have the biggest stack of pancakes you can manage.” He grunted at her, ignoring the way she rolled her eyes once again. She scribbled down his order and took the menus into her arms again, intent on heading back to the kitchen before she paused. Her eyes glinted with mischief and Kazuichi knew he wasn’t going to like what she said next.  
  
“By the way, the regular chef is out sick, so Teruteru’s covering in the kitchen today. He said he’s going to make your meal extra special,” she hummed, directing her comment solely at Kazuichi as she stalked back off to the kitchen. Hinata shook his head at this and watched his friend practically melt onto the surface of the table. Komaeda didn’t say anything. He was way too happy sucking down his hot chocolate to care.  
  
“Come on, Kazu, I doubt Teruteru knows anyway. Just… keep telling us what happened,” Hinata said, hoping to direct the topic to what Kazuichi had been talking about previously. Kazuichi begrudgingly lifted his head again and nodded, swallowing any last bits of pride as he began to explain everything that had occurred.  
  
“... and then after Akane jumped in the pool and got us wet, she was teasing us and I looked over at him and he was just… practically running back to the house,” Kazuichi mumbled out miserably, stirring his spoon lazily into one of the coffee mugs, “He looked disgusted. Embarrassed, and like he’d just made a huge mistake.”  
  
Hinata nodded slowly at this, unable to help himself from feeling a little sad for his friend. The mechanic had always struggled with relationships and getting dates, so whenever so much as a kiss went wrong it was sure to get him down. “Have you talked to him about it, yet? I doubt that’s how he really feels.”  
  
“You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself, Kazuichi!” Komaeda chimed in, an earnest smile gracing his pale face. “I thought the same thing when I kissed Hajime for the first time, but look at us now!”  
  
Kazuichi certainly didn’t feel any better after Komaeda’s comment. As if he’d want to end up like Hinata and Komaeda- especially with Gundam! Maybe with a pretty girl, but… no, definitely not Gundam. No way in fucking hell.

 “No, I haven't talked to him, and you two act like I _want_ to be in a relationship with Gundam,” he sneered at the two, bringing the coffee to his lips for a taste, “I mean, I’m open to anyone, but I still have a type. ”

 “Oh? You have a type?” Koizumi suddenly appeared, a tray stacked with food balancing on her hand and shoulder, “What are the qualifications? Have a pulse and be breathing?”

 Kazuichi snarled at the comment, but didn’t dare make a snarky retort back. He just really wanted his pancakes. He watched as the girl took her sweet time giving the others their plates before turning to Kazuichi, a wicked smile on her face. She slowly took his plate off the tray and lowered it in front of him, displaying a huge stack of heart shaped-

 What?

 Kazuichi blanked. There were heart shaped pancakes on his plate. Why were there heart shaped pancakes on his plate? His eyes darted to the other two plates on the table to see if their pancakes were heart shaped as well. Needless to say, they weren’t. Koizumi giggled a bit and turned her head to the side to give a thumbs up in the direction of the kitchen window and Kazuichi’s eyes followed. From their position, Kazuichi could barely make out Teruteru’s face staring out at them from inside the kitchen, giving off a grin to match Koizumi’s.  
  
Ah. So this is what she meant by Teruteru making his meal ‘extra special’.

 Teruteru was going to fucking die.

 He held his hand up toward the kitchen window and raised his middle finger for a moment before turning back to his plate in a huff. Oh well, a pancake was still a pancake, right? Just because they were heart-shaped didn’t mean anything-

 “Oh! I almost forgot!” Well, fuck.

 Koizumi took a can of whipped cream from the front pocket of her apron and went to work writing something on top of his pancakes. Kazuichi stared as the woman did her work, finding no will or hope in himself to stop her from doing so. She finished it off and stood back from the table, tucking her arms behind her back as she tried her very hardest not to giggle. Kazuichi slowly looked down at his plate to find exactly what he feared: she had written ‘G.T. x K.S. 4ever’ on top of his damned _heart-shaped_ pancakes.  
  
“Ahah, um, please… enjoy your meal!” She finally managed out with a squeak, turning on her heel to head back to the kitchen before she erupted into giggles. Kazuichi just stared at his pancakes, watching as the whipped cream initials slowly started to melt and slide off the heart-shaped abominations. Suddenly he wasn’t so hungry.  
  
“Oh, that Mahiru! She’s just full of jokes, isn’t she?” Komaeda commented as he began to cut up his sunny side eggs, “However, Kazuichi is obviously too nervous about his newfound romantic feelings for Gundam to find any jokes quite funny yet.”  
  
Hinata slapped a hand to his face and groaned as he chewed a bite of his hash browns, quickly picking up a piece of toast to shove in his boyfriend’s mouth. “Ko, just eat, _please_ , and don’t talk.”

 Komaeda protested a bit when Hinata shoved the bread slice into his mouth, but quickly resolved into chewing as Hinata moved to speak up. “Come on, just… try to forget about it. I mean, yeah, you kissed him, but there’s a chance he doesn’t even remember either.”

 Kazuichi sighed as he picked up his knife and fork, slowly moving to start cutting up his meal anyway. He was fucking starving, and no amount of awkward whipped cream writings on his pancakes were going to prevent him from filling his stomach. He brought a piece to his mouth to chew, feeling his chest start to warm up immediately as he began to eat.

 “Yeah, it’s just-” Kazuichi spoke with his mouth still full and paused to swallow down the rest of the bite in one gulp, “I dunno if I should talk to him or not. I mean… he was a good kisser, but not in a gay way-”  
  
Hinata made a face at the other’s admittedly stupid comment, taking up his glass of orange juice for a drink, “I… don’t know how to break it to you, Kazu, but that was still a pretty gay thing you said.”

 “Ugh, shut up,” Kazuichi groaned, banging his fist on the table, “I don’t have any feelings for Gundam, alright? He’s attractive and he’s a good kisser, but that’s it!”

 He really didn’t want to get into this right now, especially when Koizumi and Komaeda were here as well. Obviously Teruteru also knew, which meant that the rumors had to have been spread to everyone in their friend circle by now. So even if Gundam didn’t remember it, no doubt one of their friends would be sure to remind him. Kazuichi sighed into his pancakes, rubbing tiredly at his forehead.  
  
“... You do know there’s nothing wrong with you if you do have feelings for him though, right?” Hinata was suddenly serious, his eyes showing nothing but sympathy and support for the other. “I know you say you don’t have a sexual preference, but… you do go for girls a lot. So if Gundam is the first guy you’ve ever had real feelings for, don’t be afraid, okay?”

 Kazuichi stared at Hinata for a moment, noticing how understanding he seemed to be in that moment. Of course Hinata would be- he himself had spent years denying his own sexuality. Kazuichi grumbled and pushed a piece of soggy pancake around on his plate, knowing he meant nothing but the best. They had been friends since high school anyway, so Kazuichi was happy to take the support from him.  
  
“... Yeah, I know, Hajime,” he replied, giving the other a barely-there hint of a smile, “... If we’re being totally honest, I don’t know how I really feel.”

 Hinata’s face lit up just a tad when the other opened up, a certain heaviness in the air seeming to disappear as well. “That’s good! I mean, that you admitted it.”

 “Hajime’s right, Kazuichi.” Komaeda was talking again, and the mechanic wasn’t sure what to expect. “The sooner you can admit what you’re feeling, even if you’re not sure about it, the sooner you’ll feel better.”

 Well, he hadn’t been expecting that. Maybe the dude could actually be serious and supportive when he really wanted to. Hinata seemed to be pleased by Komaeda’s comment as well, and Kazuichi suppressed the gagging noises he wanted to make when they shared a kiss. Ugh. Couldn’t his friends stop being lovey-dovey in front of him?  
  
“Let’s just finish the meal and then we can go do something else. You want to hang out with me and Ko today?” Hinata asked, obviously trying to lift Kazuichi’s spirits a bit. While the other really wanted to just go home and crawl in bed, the offer to hang out was surely tempting. Hell, he had nothing to do at home anyway except clean the house; and he was most certainly planning on leaving that to Mondo and Leon anyway.

 “... Yeah, why the fuck not. Better than going home and being alone,” he said, shrugging his shoulders at the two across from him. They both shared a smile at him and he felt his chest ease at the sight, feeling a bit surprised that something as simple as breakfast had made him feel better.

 The three quickly dissolved into nonsense chatter and discussion, and Kazuichi was surprised when they even shared a few laughs. It wasn’t long until they finished their meals, and Komaeda was digging through his pockets to try and find his wallet while Hinata waved down Koizumi.

 “Hey, Mahiru! We’re ready,” Hinata had shouted at the girl from across the room, much to the dismay of a few other customers that were seated.

 The red-headed girl had rolled her eyes at the two and stuck her tongue out which lead to the three men laughing again. Kazuichi chuckled as he watched her disappear to the front of the restaurant to ring up their order for their receipt, only being brought out of his fun by the feeling of his phone buzzing in his pocket. Probably just a text from Leon or Mondo. He fished his phone out of his pocket and pressed the home button, his blood running dead cold when he saw the notification that popped up.

  **Gundam, 10:13 am:** I think we need to speak about last night. Are you free tomorrow?

 Kazuichi felt the earth crumbling around him as he read it over and over in his head, completely unaware that his two friends were trying to get his attention. Gundam… knew. Gundam remembered what happened. He had texted him… wanting to meet up. He wanted to see Kazuichi and talk to him.

 Fuck, he’d never imagined he was going to die in a Denny’s.

 “Kazuichi? Hey, dude, you okay?” Hinata tried to call to his friend, his tone full of worry as he watched the other stare blankly at the phone in his hand. Koizumi had already made her way to their table as well, slowly sliding the receipt onto the table when she noticed Kazuichi’s state. She raised an eyebrow and immediately sided up to him, fully intent at peeping.

 “Hm?” Koizumi leaned over his shoulder, her hair framing her face gently as she read the text before Kazuichi could even hide it, “Oh! Your boyfriend-to-be wants to see you tomorrow! Ooo, make sure to fill me in.”

He had been stupid to think things wouldn’t get any worse. Because, when it came to Kazuichi’s life, things always did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SOME NOTES FOR CERTAIN THINGS MENTIONED IN FIC  
> Denny's - very popular diner style restaurant in the USA  
> Starbucks - very popular coffee chain in the USA  
> Build Your Own Grand Slam - breakfast special offered at Dennys  
> Pumpkin Spice Latte Season - a period of the year where Starbucks offers their very popular seasonal 'pumpkin spice latte' drink


	3. tell me that you want me (tell me that you want it all)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Chiaki has details, and Kazuichi's still left more confused.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IM SORRY THIS TOOK LONGER THAN NORMAL LOL i was suffering bc everytime i opened the google doc for this i got like. INSANELY SLEEPY. AND TIRED. also i keep getting embarrased that my characterization of these characters is bad. but whatEVER . but i literally wrote the majority of this chapter today and im realizing its very slow paced so im sorre for that
> 
> i dunno if its gonna be just 4 chapters now tbh maybe like 7 or 8?? im unsure. i already started writing the epilogue and holy Fuq its cute. Okay its cute. its gonna just be fluffy stuff and no more angstyness (I HAD NO IDEA THIS FIC WAS LOWKEY ANGSTY UNTIL U GUYS KEPT COMMENTING THAT IT WAS A LITTLE ANGSTY) 
> 
> so enjoy this!!! about 25% of this chapter is a flashback (aka soudas dream) so Just. Be aware. theres clues in this there fic (although theyre not really that hard to figure out

**Kazuichi, 11:07 am:** yeah, we can meet up tomorrow. where at?

 **Gundam, 11:34 am:** Meet me at the fountain at Jabberwock park. 12 pm. Thanks.

Tomorrow. He was going to meet Gundam at the park tomorrow. His heart pounded in his chest like a drum and the blood hadn’t stopped rushing from his head even hours after he’d sent out the text. Fuck.

“I want the smash ball-” Hinata’s voice rang out as Kazuichi watched the characters move around on the screen rhythmically, Zelda barely avoiding a hit from Villager. His own Zero Suit Samus was lagging behind the other two opponents, but Kazuichi’s mind was so far gone he could barely care. He watched with disinterest as Villager ran at Samus and knocked her completely off the screen with a dash attack and officially out of the match. If only that could’ve been him…

The match ended soon after with Villager being the winner, much to Hinata’s dismay and Komaeda’s joy. Like always. Komaeda was the smash master to put it simply.

“Hajime, I won again! Today is my lucky day!” Komaeda said enthusiastically, leaning against the other’s shoulder with his back, “I bet it’s just my luck, even though you two aren’t that good.”

“That was totally a back-handed compliment,” Hinata huffed, pushing the other off with the end of his controller.  
  
Kazuichi threw his own controller down onto the coffee table and slid his way back onto the couch, ignoring his two friends next to him for a moment to pull out his phone and check the time. He’d managed to kill most of the day at their house, but it was still only in the early hours of the evening. His heartbeat sped up at the realization that his meet up with Gundam was only less than 24 hours away.  
  
“Are you still worrying about your, uh… meeting with Gundam tomorrow?” Hinata asked, snapping Kazuichi out his half-dazed state almost immediately. He winced at the mention of the other’s name, clicking his phone off and tossing it onto the cushion besides him.  
  
“No, course not. Gonna be a great day in the park with the world’s worst conversationalist. I’m super fuckin’ pumped,” Kazuichi mumbled sarcastically, kicking his foot against the leg of the coffee table.

“That’s the spirit, Kazuichi!” Komaeda chimed in, obviously not picking up on the sarcasm in the other’s voice. Hinata stared at his boyfriend in complete disbelief.

Kazuichi resisted the urge to roll his eyes, turning his attention back to the TV screen for a moment in hopes the conversation would move away from Gundam. The game had gotten boring after a while, as it always did, and it’s not exactly like Kazuichi was a pro in the first place. Hinata seemed to catch the other’s boredom and pushed Komaeda off him to rise to his feet quickly.  
  
“You hungry?” He asked, stretching his arms above his head and noting how it had already began to set towards dusk outside. “Or do you want me to drive you home to get ready for your big day?”

Kazuichi sneered at the mention of his so-called ‘big day’, quickly moving to stand up as well. Like it was his own fucking wedding. He really didn’t want to leave; going home meant facing the fact he’d have to go bed and get ready for his meeting at the park. Something he would try and pretend wasn’t reality for at least another three hours.  
  
“Yeah, I’m hungry. Let’s get something to eat,” he mumbled.

“Any recommendations, then?”

Kazuichi paused as he thought through it in his mind, trying to imagine what he’d want to eat for his last meal. Because, depending on how tomorrow's events would go, it really might be the last time he got to enjoy eating something good.  
  
“... Pizza,” he finally mumbled out, looking over at the other for a confirmation. Hinata nodded in agreement and went to grab his phone from the table, obviously pleased with the simple request. Kazuichi reached for his own phone off the couch cushion again to pocket it and excused himself to the bathroom, wanting to try and get his mind off Gundam.  
  
Komaeda slouched on the couch as he stared at the TV screen, heaving an all too dramatic sigh whilst clicking his controller in his hand. “Hajimeeee, can you call Chiaki over so I can have a real opponent?”  
  
Kazuichi flinched at the pitch of the other’s voice, turning on his heel to head down their hallway toward the bathroom. He really didn’t mind spending time with Komaeda, he just got… tiresome after a while. Extremely tiresome. He let himself into the bathroom and locked the door behind him, turning towards the mirror and bracing himself against the counter.  
  
“Alright, Kazuichi,” he mumbled to the mirrored version of himself, “You need to just calm the fuck down now. S’just a meeting.”

His mirror self simply stared back at him with an expression that screamed doubtfulness and he groaned, reaching up to run a hand through his hair. No matter what he told himself, his mind couldn’t stray from the idea that his next day was going to be hell. Gundam hadn’t even had a certain tone or expression in his texts, so he had no idea why he was freaking out. Maybe he should just call it off and avoid the other for the rest of his life.

He pushed himself away from the counter and moved to turn the faucet on, cupping his hands under the stream to collect a handful. He brought his hands upwards and splashed the water into his face, relishing in the cool feeling against his skin. He really need to get home and shower, considering his last one had been the day before. He was starting to feel pretty fucking gross, something that definitely did nothing to help his feelings of panic and dread.  

Kazuichi switched off the water and stumbled away from the sink, feeling his way around the bathroom for the towel rack before eventually grabbing onto it.  He pulled the towel toward him and began drying his face when he suddenly felt his phone buzz in his pocket.

His face immediately paled at the feeling and he bit back a scream into the towel. Oh no. Fuck, no, it better not be Gundam again-  
  
“Ughhhhh,” he groaned to himself, keeping his face pressed into the soft towel as he blindly fished into his pocket for his phone. Maybe it wasn’t Gundam, he tried to tell himself. Or better yet, maybe it was Gundam and he was texting to cancel. He could only hope so as he slowly pulled his face out of the towel and brought his phone to his face to check the notification.  
  
**Sonia, 6:24 pm:** What is your favorite flower?

His… favorite flower? What? He dropped the towel to grab his phone with two hands and read the text over again, wondering if he’d missed something. Maybe if he stared long enough it would start to make sense.  
  
Needless to say, two minutes of reading the text over and over again didn’t help. He furrowed his brows as he looked into the bathroom mirror again, trying to wrack his brain for a response. Why would Miss Sonia be asking for his favorite flower? He idly wondered if she was already planning his funeral, but eventually settled on the realization that while Sonia was a bit morbid, she would probably never do that. _Probably._

  
He slowly slid his finger across the screen to open up the app to reply, hesitantly typing out a text to send off to the other. He didn’t exactly know what she was expecting. He’d never been a person to receive flowers, so he most certainly didn’t have a favorite.  
  
**Kazuichi, 6:27 pm** : i dont have one? sorry?

He hoped his response wasn’t rude, as he definitely didn’t intend to come across as such, especially to someone like Sonia. He moved to exit the bathroom when his phone buzzed twice in a row, one text after the other almost immediately. He quickly brought his phone up to his face again, moving to lean against the bathroom door as he read her replies.  
  
**Sonia, 6:28 pm:** You do not have one?

 **Sonia, 6:28 pm:** Okay then what is your favorite plant in general?

What the fuck? He stared at the messages in a flurry of confusion and annoyance. Sure, whatever Sonia was planning was probably sweet, but he wasn’t in the mood. Who the fuck asks for someone’s favorite plant anyway? He huffed as he moved to type out yet another reply, deciding to hang back in the bathroom until he figured out what was up.  
  
**Kazuichi, 6:30 pm:** sorry but if i dont have a favorite flower what makes u think id have a favorite plant?? i guess apple trees are cool?  
  
He snickered lightly to himself as he hit ‘send’, knowing his text was unreasonable and uncalled for. He couldn’t help it honestly; it was just hard for him to take this shit seriously. His phone buzzed again immediately, and Sonia’s response was definitely not amused.

 **Sonia, 6:31 pm:** Apple tree!? That is too big!

 **Kazuichi, 6:32 pm:** well you asked for my favorite plant like wtf who has a favorite plant anyway

Kazuichi knew he was being annoying, but Sonia literally wasn’t making any sense. Why was she pestering him for something so insignificant? His heart fluttered in his chest for a moment as he considered the possibility that maybe she wanted to give him a gift, but he quickly dismissed it. There was certainly something between her and Chiaki, so that was most likely the farthest possible truth.  
  
**Sonia, 6:34 pm:** You are making this so difficult!!!  >_< Okay what is your favorite drink then? Favorite snack?

Difficult…? Kazuichi frowned at the message as he read it, not liking that the woman thought he was being hard to deal with. As if she wasn’t the one who started it! He grumbled under his breath as he typed, hoping his response would be enough to get her off his back.  
  
**Kazuichi, 6:35 pm:** i like soda??? and idk chips and shit??

 **Sonia, 6:36 pm:** Soda? Okay what kind?

 **Kazuichi, 6:36 pm:** literally any kind idc.

He hung back for a while longer to see if she would reply, a little more than relieved when her texts finally stopped. He pocketed his phone and allowed himself to begin going over the exchange in his head to solve it. He finally left the bathroom as he debated, clearly hearing the voices of Hinata and Komaeda from the living room. Maybe his birthday was coming up or something and he’d… somehow forgotten about it? No, that was fucking stupid.  
  
Kazuichi rubbed a hand against his forehead as he reentered the living room, grimacing to himself when he saw Hinata and Komaeda obviously caught up in some kind of conversation on the couch. That wasn’t exactly abnormal; they would go back and forth a lot. Mostly one-sided ‘arguments’ on Hinata’s half, while Komaeda just hummed in agreement to whatever the other said. However… this time they quickly quieted down when he entered the room, looking up at him and attempting to pretend like they hadn’t been talking at all.

Kazuichi furrowed his brows. Fucking sneaky bastards. He stood by the entrance of the living room for a moment and tried to see if they would continue. But… they didn’t.  
  
“The pizza is on it’s way,” Hinata said smoothly, leaning against the couch, “and Chiaki’s coming over too.”  
  
Kazuichi narrowed his eyes at the two, trying to gauge any kind of emotion or reaction about what they may have been talking about. Hinata was as casual as ever, while Komaeda… seemed to look a little too happy. Like he knew some big secret that he wasn’t going to give up for anything. Kazuichi slowly moved to take a seat beside him, kicking his feet up on the table as he did so.  
  
“Oh, that’s cool,” he said hesitantly, “... You gonna tell me what you were talking about, or…?”  
  
Komaeda’s face split into a big grin, as if he had just been waiting excitedly for the other to ask that exact thing. The motherfucker _loved_ secrets. “No, it’s a secret, Kazuichi!”  
  
Ah, so he’d been right. Hinata sighed heavily when Komaeda outright admitted it and turned his head to give him a disapproving look. “Ko, seriously? You’re not supposed to tell someone you’re keeping a secret from them.”  
  
Komaeda simply pouted at this, moving to rest his chin in the space of Hinata’s neck, “I’m sorry, Hajime. You’re not mad at me right?”  
  
Kazuichi simply rolled his eyes at the two, crossing his arms over his chest as the two had their little moment. Gross. He was a little thankful Chiaki would be coming over as well, which meant he’d at least have someone to make awkward eye contact with when the two started with their bullshit. He had almost forgotten about his conversation with Sonia.  
  
“By the way, what took you so long in the bathroom?” Hinata suddenly interjected, having pressed a hand on Komaeda’s face to push him off his shoulder. Kazuichi grunted out as he slid down further on the seat of the couch, offering only a half-assed shrug.  
  
“Just washing my face. Then Sonia texted me asking about my favorite flower,” He mumbled, “Told her I didn’t have one, so she asked for my favorite plant. Dunno why.”

Hinata had removed his hand from Komaeda’s face and the two were sharing an odd look; a look that Kazuichi most certainly didn’t like. Hinata leaned back against the couch a little too stiffly while Komaeda hid his smile by biting the inside of his cheek. Kazuichi stared again for a moment before it finally clicked.  
  
The motherfuckers totally knew something about the odd texts from Sonia.

  
Oh, fuck his friends. Seriously, fuck them all. Kazuichi felt a certain anger rising in him like a thermometer, and he almost voiced it if it wasn’t for the doorbell. He’d never seen someone look more relieved as Hinata bolted off the couch, leaving the two men behind.  
  
“Chiaki!” Hinata practically shouted as he threw open the door to let the girl in. Chiaki hardly looked surprised by this, only barely looking up from her phone as she stepped inside the house and began to toe off her shoes.  
  
“Hi, Hajime…” she mumbled out, gently kicking her sneakers towards the shoe rack by the door, “There’s a pikachu in your house.”

“Hello, Chiaki!” Komaeda called excitedly from the couch. Kazuichi just threw his hand up in the air as his greeting to her. He was too pissed about the secret keeping thing to be all buddy-buddy with anyone.  
  
“Oh, hello Nagito. Kazuichi,” she greeted back, slowly walking towards the living room to join the boys. Hinata followed her back and tried his best to hide his overwhelmingly relieved expression from Kazuichi as he moved to take a seat back down on the couch. At least Chiaki wasn’t the type to make a big deal about what had happened the night before.  
  
“Let’s smash, Chiaki!” Komaeda said excitedly from his end of the couch as he moved to hand her a controller. For a moment, Kazuichi swore that Chiaki stared at him for a moment longer than she normally would of, but by the time he’d registered it she’d already looked away. He decided not to push it for the time being and focused on having a good time with his friends while he still could he supposed. If only he could slow down time to savor the moment… But alas, time was a cruel mistress and the night got away from him quicker than he'd imagined.

Or, to put it in a less dramatic fashion, time just always seemed to fly when you tried to avoid it.

 

* * *

 

Kazuichi wished he could have gotten away with staying longer, but by the time 8 pm had hit it was obvious he had to go home. Especially since Komaeda had started to get… grumpy, for the lack of a better word. Meaning he more or less ended up kicking everyone out but Hinata. Hinata just waved goodbye at the two from the door, his tone just a tad apologetic, but Kazuichi could see the other was tired as well and simply wanted to spend time alone with his boyfriend. Chiaki didn’t seem too bothered by this though, mumbling something about going and seeing Sonia as she had followed Kazuichi out the door.  
  
He tried not to let himself feel jealous over the fact that almost all his friend’s had someone to share their nights with. Someone to get ready for bed with and cuddle with while watching TV. He sneered to himself. Like he needed anything like that.  
  
“... Let me give you a ride home,” Chiaki said quietly, twirling a small piece of her rose-colored hair around her finger. Kazuichi almost denied it right then and there, had it not been for the fact that he actually didn’t have any way of getting home. He slowly nodded in response to her and followed Chiaki to her own car, his hands shoved into the pocket of his sweatshirt.  
  
They were both silent as they climbed into the car and got buckled up, Kazuichi crossing his arms over his chest and Chiaki digging into her purse to take out her keys. She turned the car on and the other was pleased with the hum of the motor and the cool breeze that came from the AC. It was a comfortable silence really, something that both of them were happy to just sit and enjoy.  
  
“You seem upset,” Chiaki inquired, breaking the silence as she backed out of the driveway. Kazuichi grimaced a bit at her comment, having hoped to avoid all conversation on the drive back home. Oh well. Chiaki probably wouldn’t talk long…  
  
“I’m not- Well, uh. Not exactly, I guess,” he mumbled, reaching up to scratch his chin gently. Chiaki raised an eyebrow and kept her eyes on the road as she began to drive off out of the neighborhood. He thought that might be the end of any attempts at conversation until she spoke up again.  
  
“Is it because of what happened? With you and…”  
  
Kazuichi huffed through his nose when the other trailed off, knowing exactly what she was referring to. I mean, who wouldn’t at this point? He wouldn’t be surprised if he woke up the next morning to find the president addressing it on live TV. Chiaki wasn’t blind to Kazuichi’s response and simply shrugged her shoulders, humming out some song from a video game out of habit.  
  
“I guess it’s not my business to ask. Although, I won’t tease you about it if you do want to talk…” she said quietly through her tune.

“Oh yeah, really? Not going to make any wedding jokes or ask me how the sex life is?” Kazuichi spat bitterly, feeling the words burn his tongue a bit. His comment was vulgar and uncalled for and immediately caused Chiaki to go silent. He felt guilt twinge in his chest and he pulled his arms away from his chest to rub at his face, wishing he could take the words back.

  
“Ugh, I’m sorry. I… that was rude, I’m sorry,” he mumbled out in defeat, turning his head to stare out the window. This whole situation was getting to be way too much for him. If it had a been a girl he’d kissed he could’ve just shrugged off the teasing, although he had reason to believe no one would have said a damn thing if he’d kissed one of his female friends.

  
“I accept your apology,” Chiaki said, her tone conveying that she fully meant it as well, “You know, most of our friends are…”  
  
“Immature, nosy jerks?”  
  
“... Yeah, pretty much.”

Kazuichi brought his hands up to run them through his hair, turning away from the window to get a look at the girl beside him. He… could trust Chiaki. At least, he was pretty sure he could. As far as he could remember, he’d never witnessed the quiet girl blabbering gossip and secrets to anyone. She was just… chill like that, he supposed.  
  
“... Promise not to say anything?” he asked hesitantly. Chiaki let a small smile grace her lips and nodded, a silent way of telling him to continue. Kazuichi straightened his spine beside her and took a deep breath, readying himself for a conversation that was most certainly going to make him feel vulnerable.  
  
“I dunno how I feel about that guy, to be honest. We always fought in high school and shit, and we finally started to, like, y’know, be more mature, I guess. We still weren’t best friends, but…” he trailed off for a moment before finally continuing. “... It’s a little shitty that something like this might make stuff with him all horrible again.”  
  
“And it doesn’t help that all of our friends seem to be teasing you about it,” Chiaki added, her eyes still focused on the road ahead of her. At least she was listening, though.  
  
“Yeah! Exactly!” Kazuichi huffed, happy that the girl seemed to be understanding. “It’s like they’re purposely trying to make stuff awkward between us. It wasn’t like Gundam was super happy to be kissing me anyway; he was disgusted and angry and just ran off after.”  
  
He waited for the girl to interject after his last comment, but she stayed silent for a moment, her fingers drumming against the steering wheel. As if she had something important to say, but she didn’t know if she should actually say it. That was suspicious. Kazuichi moved to say something, but she was quick to counter and cut him off.  
  
“Me and Gundam aren’t best friends either, you know,” she started, her words slow and bordering on rehearsed, “but I do know he wasn’t disgusted or unhappy.”  
  
That right there was enough to silence Kazuichi completely, his mind trying to process what the girl was implying. Did she just imply that Gundam had… _liked_ kissing him? No, no, that couldn’t be it. But… Chiaki wasn’t one to tell lies just for the sake of making people feel better. Some part of what she said had to be the truth.

“... I can see you’re confused, but… it’s exactly as I said,” she continued, her eyes narrowing slightly in his direction, “He was not disgusted or unhappy with what you did. I know because he told me.”  
  
“Wait- He told you!?” Kazuichi was nearly jumping across the center console of the car at this point, his eyes wide. Chiaki blinked at his utter excitement and he felt shame and embarrassment crawl up his spine. Ugh, why was he acting like a 7th grader with a crush?  
  
“Yes, he told me. At the party...“ Chiaki hummed out. “He came up to me and Sonia and said he wanted to leave. We had driven him there, and Sonia was getting tired as well so we all agreed to leave. He was… flustered when I tried to take him to his house. He wanted to come stay at my house with Sonia.”

Kazuichi furrowed his brows at this new information, feeling a tiny bit of jealously boiling in inside him. Gundam had just… left after kissing him? And wanted to go stay with Sonia and Chiaki? What the actual fuck?  
  
“... It’s not what you’re thinking, either. He just had a lot on his mind, and Sonia is his good friend, so…”  
  
“Yeah, yeah. I know, just- What else can you tell me?” He was curious now, undoubtedly wanting to know how things had gone on Gundam’s end. He had really only been feeling sorry for himself this whole time, but he couldn’t help feeling relieved if Gundam had been suffering too.  
  
“Well… not much. He kind of just fell asleep on the couch the minute we brought him to my house,” Chiaki said a bit apologetically as she finally turned into his neighborhood, “But… in the morning, I came out of my room and he and Sonia were talking. And he seemed really, really conflicted about it.”  
  
Conflicted…? He furrowed his brows together at the word, wracking his brain to try and figure out why Gundam would be ‘conflicted’ on an accidental kiss. I mean… that’s what it was, right? An accident? Nothing more than just an accidental kiss that jumpstarted terrible rumors.

“He seemed really nervous, too, saying how he had ‘ruined something’,” Chiaki continued, her lips pressing into a fine line as she began to search for his house. “Sorry, which house is it again…?”  
  
“The third one after you make the left turn up here,” Kazuichi replied hurriedly, wanting to get back onto the topic of Gundam. His heart was racing in his chest with every word the girl had used. He had ruined something? Like what? Kazuichi was sure the other hadn’t really even wanted to hang out with him, but…  
  
“Thanks,” Chiaki said, taking her sweet time to make the turn down his street, “Anyway, Sonia was trying to make him feel better by saying to not give up. He didn’t really seem to believe her, saying he was really bad at stuff like this. I just assumed he was talking about the gossip…

“Oh,” Kazuichi mumbled, watching as his house came into view. Chiaki pulled up to his house slowly and set the car into park, turning to finally look the other in the face. Her eyes were warm with understanding, and he felt his extreme nerves and fear for the next day take a backseat for the moment.  
  
“... I asked him if he was upset by the fact that he kissed you and he got… defensive. Saying he wasn’t disgusted or mad or anything,” she said, giving Kazuichi a nod, “I didn’t want to pry so I left him alone after that. But… he’s really not disgusted or mad.”  
  
He had no idea what he was really supposed to make out of this information, let alone what it actually meant. So… Gundam wasn’t grossed out or angry at him. That was one plus, he supposed. However, if he wasn’t either of those things, then exactly how did he feel?  
  
“... Thanks, Chiaki,” he said finally, deciding it would be rude to pry the other girl for even more information. He could just think over what she said tonight in bed and prepare himself for tomorrow.

He nearly groaned when he remembered the next day. He had gotten so caught up with Chiaki he’d nearly forgotten. The girl simply smiled at him and nodded at his thanks, looking toward his house. Kazuichi took this as a silent request for him to actually get out of her car and go inside.  
  
He climbed out and said his goodbyes to his friend, watching from the driveway as she backed out and drove off. He caught her eye once more right before and waved to her, feeling a mixture of nerves and satisfaction brewing inside him. He turned on his heel and headed for the front door, moving to pull up the front mat for the spare key. He let himself in quietly and was thankful when his roommates seemed to be hidden away in their rooms for the rest of the night, and that Ishimaru and Maizono had finally gone home.  
  
“Thank god,” he grunted to himself as he headed past the living room and to the bathroom. He needed a shower badly. He started up the water and went about peeling his clothes off his body as he waited for the water to heat up, rocking back and forth on his feet as he let his mind ponder Chiaki’s words.

He was undeniably relieved that Gundam wasn’t upset or disgusted with him, that was a definite for sure. But… it felt like he was still missing something important from what she said. He slowly climbed into the shower and wracked his brain as he began to clean himself, absentmindedly making sure to do a good job. The last thing he needed was to smell sweatier than usual when he saw Gundam tomorrow.

Chiaki had said the other seemed nervous, which in itself wasn’t unusual, except for the fact that he wasn’t nervous in the way most would expect him to be. He had been nervous because he had ruined something, apparently. But what? He had been sure the only reason Gundam had even hung around with him was because he didn’t have anyone else to hang out with. Though, even that was sketchy. There were more people in their friend group that Gundam was acquainted with, so why pick Kazuichi? Why pick the boy he had nearly gotten into fist fights with in high school over stupid and childish things?  
  
“Doesn’t make any sense,” Kazuichi huffed to himself as he scrubbed shampoo into his hair. The foam from the soap was turning a light pink from his hair dye and he made a mental reminder to re-dye it sometime this week. He rinsed his hair out and finished up cleaning his body as well before he finally shut the water off and climbed out.  
  
He dried himself with a towel and went to work with brushing his teeth as well, looking over his face as it trying to determine if it was going to be… presentable for tomorrow. It wasn’t like he could go out and buy a new one, so may as well just call it good. Kazuichi frowned at his reflection after he’d finished, his mind still racing from everything Chiaki had said. He really just needed sleep, honestly. A long, deep sleep.  
  
He exited the bathroom and made his way to his room, deciding he was just going to forget it for the night. He’d heard somewhere that worrying at night caused wrinkles, anyway. He dressed in a pair of boxers and threw himself into his bed, finding the feeling of it comforting. Ah yes, his bed. Finally.

Kazuichi snuggled down into the sheets and closed his eyes, trying his best to keep his mind off of Gundam as he drifted off. Maybe tomorrow wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe Gundam would call it off or say that he didn’t want to see him again. They’d go back to being just acquaintances, and the world would be good.  
  
Although, no matter how many times he repeated this in his head, it did nothing to bring him comfort.

* * *

 

_“It’s winter formal!”_

_Kazuichi winced as Ibuki practically shrieked the words in his ear, digging a fork into his macaroni as his friends babbled. Winter formal, what a fucking joke. Just a waste of 50 dollars for one ticket so you could wear too-tight suits and poofy dresses and eat dinner with a bunch of ‘friends’._

  
_“Ibuki is going to take Mikan and Peko!” the girl continued, bringing her sandwich to her mouth for a bite,  “Ibuki, Peko, and Mikan are going to be the bestest friends there!”_  
  
_“Hey, who said you get to take Peko-!” Fuyuhiko had countered angrily, his face nearly exploding into a blush after he’d realized what he had said, “I-I mean, what if Peko wants to go with someone else-?”_  
  
_“Oooh, Fuyuhiko is jealous! This would make great song lyrics! However, Ibuki doesn’t care if Fuyuhiko wants to take Peko. Ibuki and Mikan will just be cute dates together instead!”_  
  
_“D-Dates-!?” Mikan had cried, her hands trembling at the thought. Ibuki just laughed and continued to chatter away about the dance, her arms slung around the necks of Peko and Mikan. Kazuichi frowned at his table of friends, finding himself feeling a little left out. He definitely wasn’t planning on going to the stupid dance anyway. It was a waste of time. Unless… Miss Sonia would be available._  
  
_“Kazuichi, do you think you’re going to ask anyone?” Hinata nudged him in the shoulder, having noticed he was silent._  
  
_“I… dunno. Maybe I’ll ask Sonia,” he said, taking another bite of his lunch, “What about you?”_  
  
_Hinata smiled in response and leaned into the table a bit, “I’m going with Chiaki and Nagito. As a group! Nagito asked us if we wanted to go.”_  
  
_Kazuichi could’ve laughed at that. Komaeda had put in a lot of time into thinking of the perfect way to ask Hinata, and Hinata had immediately assumed that he had meant he was asking their little group of 3. Hinata really could be an oblivious idiot sometimes. Especially since the sign Komaeda had made specifically read just Hinata’s name._  
  
_The bell rang throughout the cafeteria and Kazuichi groaned quietly to himself as he stood, definitely not wanting to head to his next class. His friends all began to get up and make their way around, getting their trash thrown away before going about their day, most of them still chattering about formal and stuff._  
  
_Ugh._  
  
_He headed out of the cafeteria alone and frowned as he began to walk to class, feeling himself become a little upset at the thought of formal. He really wanted to ask Miss Sonia, but… she was always hanging around Gundam. He really didn’t want to get rejected by her._  
_  
“You. I request that you cease your movements.”_

 _The fuck?_  
  
_Kazuichi turned around to see none other than Gundam Tanaka standing there, decked out in his full garb. He nearly laughed. This kid was such a fucking weirdo, always dressing in black on black on black with that dumb scarf around his neck._  
  
_“Oh, yeah? Why’s that?” he countered, readying himself for a fight. Maybe not a fist fight, but definitely a verbal battle. He tried to think of as many insults in his head as he could manage, knowing that Gundam was more quick witted than he was and could take him down easily._  
  
_“I require information from you pertaining this winter formal event,” he said, his eyes drifting to the side as if he was attempting to avoid his gaze, “Will you be attending?”_  
  
_Kazuichi blanked a bit at this question, feeling the crowd of students on their way to class moving around them. Gundam was asking if he was going to formal? But… why?_  
  
_“Uh, I dunno, buddy. Why do you wanna know?” he asked, his eyes narrowing at the other. He was obviously planning something. Probably something evil too. Gundam’s eyes changed with this information and quickly moved to hide his face with his scarf, seemingly wanting to know even more._  
  
_“I… was simply curious, that is the sole reason. I assumed you would be asking the Dark Lady to go.”_  
  
_Kazuichi tried his hardest to remember who the ‘Dark Lady’ was before he realized it was Miss Sonia. Oh, that motherfucker! He was totally trying to ask Sonia to formal before he even had a chance! Well, that wasn’t going to fucking happen. No way in hell._  
  
_“Y-Yeah, I am!” Kazuichi raised his voice, putting his hands on his hips, “And you’re not going to fucking beat me too it, got it? Stay the fuck away from Miss Sonia!”_  
  
_Gundam seemed shocked by his outburst, his expression going from interested to a bit confused in record time, “I… That was not-”_  
  
_“Yeah, yeah, I don’t fucking care! You stay away from her and let me ask her to formal, got it? You don’t deserve a nice, pretty girl like Sonia to take!” Kazuichi continued, feeling his blood boil. Who the fuck did this guy think he was? Trying to put the moves on Miss Sonia when Kazuichi obviously had strong feelings for her!_  
  
_Gundam didn’t seem to want to back down, simply clenching his fist and glaring harder at the other. “Y-You incompetent fool! I… You… You are simply the most dull-minded mortal on this godforsaken earth! I’m trying to-”_  
  
_Oh, so now he was going to call him stupid? Kazuichi wasn’t going to stand for this! He crossed his arms across his chest and stared down at the other angrily, trying to make himself look bigger._  
_  
“I don’t give a shit what you’re trying to do! Stay away from me and Sonia at the winter formal, alright? You can just take one of your stinky, dumb hamsters,” he snarled, raising his hand to lightly push the other backward. Gundam stumbled about two steps, and for a moment Kazuichi saw a flash of pain in his eyes before it was quickly masked again with anger._

  
_“Fine-!” he shouted back at Kazuichi, turning away from him for a moment. A few of the students had stopped in the hall and were now watching intently to see what would happen next. From over the other student’s heads, Kazuichi could swear he saw Sonia watching them, her mouth agape in what seemed like horror._  
_  
“Kazuichi Souda, you certainly are the most feeble-minded mortal I have ever had the displeasure of meeting!” the other boy roared, his face turning red as he stared him down, “I wish you true hell for now and all eternity!”_

 _“Yeah, yeah, whatever! Just fuck off, okay?” he snarled, turning away from the boy. He didn’t have to listen to this crap anymore! He quickly left the scene and the developing crowd, his mind still racing. Fuck Gundam! He was such a bastard, trying to threaten and scare him out of asking Miss Sonia to the formal! Well, at least he’d made his point known to him now._  
_  
He huffed loudly as he made his way to his classroom, ignoring the looks of the other students as he did so. He was used to it. As he turned into his classroom he decided to look back, catching the sight of Gundam’s back turned towards him as he talked to Sonia. He couldn’t see Gundam’s face, but Sonia seemed to look rather... upset for whatever reason. Maybe she was rejecting him._

 _“You’re a fucking jerk.”_  
  
_Kazuichi blinked at the words when he heard them, turning around to see Fuyuhiko standing behind him and waiting for him to move into the classroom. Kazuichi frowned at him and rolled his eyes as the boy pretty much glared daggers at him. Sheesh, he knew the other had an attitude, but why did he actually seem… angry right now?_  
  
_“Whatever. I’d do anything to make sure he didn’t try to ask Miss Sonia,” Kazuichi replied, heading into the classroom as the other followed behind him. Fuyuhiko didn’t seem pleased with this answer, only letting out a bitter snort._  
  
_“Wow, not only are you a fucking jerk, you’re a huge fucking dumbass too,” he spat, the words full of malice. Kazuichi furrowed his brows at the other’s uncalled for hostility. Sure, it wasn’t uncommon, but what gives?_  
  
_“Yeah, yeah. Just wait til’ I’m the one taking Miss Sonia to formal.”_  
  
_Fuyuhiko glared at him for a moment longer, his gaze turning a bit harsher as he snarled and made his way past the other. “You are such a fucking piece of shit.”_  
_  
Kazuichi just frowned at his desk as Fuyuhiko headed for the back of the class where his desk resided, wondering what on earth had gotten the boy so angry. Had he misread something? No… No, Gundam had definitely been trying to put the moves on his girl. There was no way he was wrong about that. Fuyuhiko must just be pissed off about something else._

_“Whatever,” he mumbled to himself. “Fuck Gundam.”_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OOOOWAHHH TEENAGERS
> 
> SCARY
> 
> so yah lil baby cliffhanger while souda gets some sleep. hes a tired boy. let him rest. also im sorry if this is angsty i dont kno if im good at angst Rly
> 
> okay i hope u guys liked this chapter!! IM SORRY I STILL HAVENT BROUGHT GUNDAM BACK IN BUT I PROMISE. HE'LL BE HERE NEXT CHAPTER. I PROMISE. HES SUFFERING AS WELL
> 
> BTW THESE CHAPTER TITLES ARE LYRICS FROM SONGS THAT GO WITH THE FIC?? LIKE.... I HOPE U GUYS NOTICED...THE TITLES ARE BASICALLY MAKING A PLAYLIST TO GO ALONG WITH THIS FIC....SEARCH THE LYRICS AND YOU'LL FIND THE SONGS...
> 
> my tumblr is @ ANQIEYONAQA (the g's are q's) SO YEAH


	4. don't want you to get it on (with nobody else but me)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sonia has officially had enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *walks in 6 months late*
> 
> *gently sets this chapter down*
> 
> im so fuckin sorry my dudes. i have no excuses or explanations im just a horrible person. ive been writing this on and off for 6 months and i just finished it tonight while listening to genghis kahn by miike snow on repeat. funny thing, i reread this fic and im like. Blown away. at how good it is. like im not trying to toot my own horn but this fanfic is byfar one of the things ive worked my hardest on and i really think it shows. i love each and every commenter ive gotten on this fanfic. and i will NEVER abandon this fic. NEVER. i swear. im way too proud of it to drop it.
> 
> THIS CHAPTER IS SHORTER BECAUSE ITS GUNDAM CENTRIC AND IT KINDA. LETS U INTO ALL HIS SHIT. IM SO SORRY THIS FANFIC IS SUCH A SLOW BUILD I REALLY AM. FOUR CHAPTERS IN AND THEY STILL HAVENT MET AGAIN. I FUCKING **PROMISE** THERE WILL BE SOUDAM INTERACTIONS IN THE NEXT CHAPTER

If someone was to describe Gundam Tanaka, the words ‘weird’ and ‘confusing’ were sure to be used at least once. It had been that way his whole life, really. He had always been a little bit different from kids his age; never wanting to interact with classmates and instead dedicating his time to animals. His mother saw fit that he got help for it through social skills classes in middle school, so by the time high school rolled around he was actually able to befriend a large amount of new people he met.

Yet, even though he had learned how to interact with people, interacting with people he had romantic interest in was impossible. Because Gundam Tanaka having romantic interest in anyone was rare and unfortunate- really, really rare and extremely unfortunate. So rare that it had only happened once in his life, and so unfortunate that the one time it had happened it had been with an equally romantically-inept fool.

Of course, it’s not like he hadn’t tried. He really had. Nights were spent on the phone with Sonia, ideas of how he could approach his dilemma bouncing between them, only for nothing to actually come out of it. Days were spent trying to plant even the tiniest seed of friendship between him and his person of interest- yet he was always left cold after every encounter. By the time the 3rd year of high school had rolled around, Gundam had ultimately decided to give up.

Until he had heard about the winter formal. Something that required you to ask someone else to take as a date, like a real couple. When Sonia had first mentioned of asking his crush, Gundam’s refusal had been wild and unmoving. There was no way he could go ahead and do something that. His crush had made it very certain that he was a huge idiot who had no idea of the other’s feelings whatsoever. But Sonia was pushy and more hopeful than Gundam had ever been in his entire life, and he simply couldn’t stand to hear her say ‘but you won’t know until you try!’ one more time.

So, with Sonia’s hope substituting in for his nonexistent one, Gundam Tanaka attempted to ask Souda Kazuichi to the winter formal.

The key word here was _attempted_ , because unfortunately Gundam didn’t even get a proper rejection from his crush due to the fact that he had his head so far up his ass. Calmly dubbed as the ‘formal incident’ by the friend group, it was obvious that Gundam would never again try to pursue Souda in a romantic sense. He ended up going to formal with Sonia, and Souda ended up not going at all. His feelings didn’t die out through the rest of 3rd year even though it was the time they probably ‘hated’ each other the most. Souda hated Gundam because he had apparently put the ‘moves’ on his crush, and Gundam hated Souda because he was a big, dumb fucking _idiot_.

Things continued in that fashion until graduation and they moved away for college. Sonia went to Novoselic to study, Gundam went to a university about an hour away from their home town, and Souda went across the country to live with his dad while he attended a college nearby. It was the perfect way to move on, really. A new town, new friends, and new experiences. Forgetting Souda should have been easy.

It should had been easy, but it wasn’t. Making friend’s still wasn’t easy, and he spent most of his time alone in his dorm, talking with Sonia through skype. She was dealing with her own romantic crisis at the time, and Gundam felt comfortable to confide in her more than once that he still had feelings for the pink-haired dumbass. In return Sonia talked about her blossoming identity, how she was realizing that she had no interest in the men that would take her on date, but that she _really_ liked this one girl in her french class in a way that was more than friendly.

After receiving a degree in animal science and making no progress in the romance or friendship departments, he ended up moving back home to live with his mother again. He got into contact with his old friends immediately and began to work in a small pet store downtown. For the first time in a long time, Gundam was really happy. He was happy to be living with his mother again and hanging out with his old friends, and it seemed the stitches on his feelings for Souda we're starting to close.

The feelings of happiness lasted about a year until it caught wind in their friend group that Souda’s father passed away and due to it, Souda would be moving back into town. Souda’s father had never been a really great person, at least from what Gundam had heard, but it was still upsetting that his former classmate was completely without parents. Thankfully now, they were both adults. The first time they met again, there was no yelling or threats of a fight- it was just mindless, awkward conversation. Which was better than one might think.

So they continued that way. Gundam was happy to be somewhat friends with the other, even if he knew nothing would come from it. Sonia liked to tease him more about it now than ever, much to his own dismay. It honestly seemed that his feelings were just a joke now, not that it bothered him, and he was fine to keep it that way. Being just friends seemed to be the best treatment for his feelings.

Being ‘just friends’ came with some other things. Like being invited to birthday parties and to social events like house parties. Which would be fine, if not for the fact that Gundam was the aforementioned socially awkward fool.

He had kissed Souda. On the lips. With his own lips.

And then he’d just ran off.

Yes, Gundam was bad with his emotions. So bad that he had grabbed Sonia with one hand and Chiaki with his other and dragged them out of the house while he suffered an internal panic attack. One part because he’d just kissed his dumb crush of 5 years, and the other part because he had just _run off_ and left him sitting there soaking wet.

But was he really so bad with emotions that he couldn’t have just rushed out an apology or an explanation? Even something as simple as, ‘Hey, I’ve had a crush on you for nearly six years but you’ve been way too fucking stupid to notice and all my repressed feelings caused me to kiss you.’

The ride home was silent at first, most likely the two girls giving him time to slow his breathing and take a moment to blink away the fuzzy-ness from the alcohol. He was thankful for this. He really didn’t feel much like talking about it in the moment. Mostly because Chiaki was in the car, and while he trusted her, he didn’t _trust_ her like he trusted Sonia.

“...So-” Sonia started slowly, her hands perched gently in her lap, “Do you want to-”

  
“No,” he said quickly, “Tommorow. I need to sleep.”  
  
Sonia didn’t need to be told twice. Whenever Gundam slipped out of his normal way of talking, it meant he was officially spent and needed time. The girls quietly chatted between themselves about nothing important the rest of the way, and Gundam found himself being lulled into a state of sleep by it.

The minute they arrived to Sonia’s house, he had thrown himself onto the couch, not even bothering to remove his shoes or scarf, and fallen asleep. Hopefully, by some miracle, he’d wake up and it would all just be a dream.

* * *

Gundam woke up staring at the white ceiling and sweating bullets. He hadn’t dreamed anything, but his body was aware that he was still dressed in all his clothing from the night before and that Sonia had covered him with two quilts during the night for fear he would grow cold. He threw the brightly colored blankets onto the floor and up, rubbing circles in his temples as he felt the throbbing slowly start from behind his eyes. Ah, yes, the joys of a hangover.

“I made coffee.”

He nearly jumped out of his skin at the voice, turning to see Sonia standing there at the doorway to the kitchen, clad in matching pajamas, holding a ‘Life’s a beach!’ mug filled with coffee. There was silence for a moment, but Gundam slowly stood from the couch and kicked his shoes off to head into the kitchen. Wordlessly, he made his own mug as Sonia went to wait for him in the living room, most definitely to talk about what had happened the previous night.

Swirling a teaspoon in his filled cup, he headed back into the living room to join Sonie on the couch for the certain discussion that was about to unfold. She sipped from her own cup quietly as she fingered with the hem of her kitten printed pajama shorts. The doubt hanging in the air was like a dark curtain and it made his head throb.

“So,” she finally began, moving to set her mug down on the coffee table, “Akane phoned me very early this morning. She was very drunk and I could not make out what she was saying well…”

“Hn,” was all Gundam offered, his eyes narrowing down at her hands in her lap. He already knew what was coming.

“...but I did hear her say your name, Souda’s name, and that you guys, um…” Sonia looked uncomfortable for a moment, her face blooming into a pink color, “that you… um, you two had… hooked… up?"

Gundam gave a solemn nod as she finished up, but his mind didn’t exactly register the words until he’d thought them other. Then it hit him.

They had… _Hooked up?_

His sip from his mug was cut short as his throat seized around the liquid going down his throat, and he was sent sputtering and choking up his coffee in his lap. Sonia looked alarmed and quickly grabbed the mug from him and substituted one of the quilts on the floor as a napkin. Of course, choking out coffee on his best friend’s girlfriend’s couch wasn’t how he _wanted_ his morning to go, but… well, he supposed this was just a sign that his day was not going to go well at all.

“ _No_ ,” he tried to say firmly, although it just came out raspy and deep and muffled by the quilt, “No. No, we performed _no such acts-_ ”

Sonia didn’t respond, as she was much too busy trying to not let her friend choke, and suddenly hit Gundam on the back with her fist as hard as possible. That seemed to do the trick, and he coughed a few more times into the quilt before it seemed the gods took mercy on him and allowed his lungs to breath again. He pulled the quilt away from his mouth and instantly felt silly for his near panic attack.

Time to try this again.  

“I can assure you that no events took place,” he assured, “Akane must… have been attempting to deceive you.”  
  
“Oh. Okay.”

His explanation seemed to do nothing than raise even more questions, really. Sonia stared at him impatiently, obviously not wanting to press, but certainly becoming overwhelmed with curiosity.

He decided to continue, “It was… simply a… foolish child’s kiss.”

Her eyebrow raised in such a way that Gundam could feel a tiny bead of sweat forming and running down his neck. Green eyes bore into grey ones, attempting to analyze what was being hid verbally. Sonia didn’t like to be intrusive, but she most certainly didn’t like to have things such as this just hidden from her. Gundam tried his hardest to maintain the eye contact comfortably, but it was getting harder and harder as time went on, and he took a deep breath finally.

She had broken him, something she was very notorious for doing. The man reached for his mug that had been left to cool on the coffee table and slowly prepared himself to tell the long and fuzzy story. While ignoring the forming headache in his skull, he started with the details at the party. Trying to be friendly with Souda, attempting to be considerate and kind, and how things had actually had seemed to be going quite well.

Sonia listened to it all, not moving to interrupt or speak at any point, as she just wanted to hear what had happened in entirety before she commented. Her facial expression didn’t betray any disgust or disappointment, only sympathy and understanding as he went off. In the back part of her brain, she knew this had to be extremely tough for her friend. This couldn’t just be a ‘funny and drunken’ mistake to him, it was most likely eating at the worst parts of his fears and insecurities.

If there was going to be one person besides Gundam’s mother that knew everything about him, it was going to be Sonia. And right now, she knew he didn’t need teasing or mocking, he needed advice and good support to help him on what to do next. As he finally winded down and got to the most troubling part of the story, something he verbally struggled to get out, she gently reached to take his hand and squeeze it.  
  
“I am really, really sorry,” she mumbled out, giving him a supportive squeeze, “Are you okay?”  
  
“You act as if I’m some defenseless mortal, please,” Gundam scoffed out, although it was obvious he was most certainly not just ‘okay’ with it. Sonia’s gaze turned a little hard and she sighed, gently moving to pull his hand away.  
  
“Gundam, please, I know you are freaking out about this. Please do not try to just brush it off,” She pleaded, “You can not avoid what happened. You should probably talk with Souda about it…”

“No.”

“Gundam,” Sonia said firmly, trying to catch his gaze, “it is not fair to you, and it is not fair to him to just ignore it.”

“Perhaps the idiotic mortal does not remember what took place,” He said cooly, although it was obvious that their snoopy friend’s would not have let that happen.

“You know that is not true. You have had these feelings for a while… I think this is, uh… a way of telling you that your feelings need to be settled once and for all,” she continued, her voice full with nothing but confidence and self-assurance. Gundam would never be able to recover from his stupid little crush, especially with this kiss incident, and he definitely needed to settle things if he ever wanted to move on.

“It is not so elementary, Sonia,” he insisted, “You speak from no experience.”

“That does not mean I do not know anything though. Please, Gundam, you just need to come clean about the past… what is it now, 6 years?” she took his silence as a confirmation, “6 years, Gundam. It is not fair to do this to yourself. You can tell him, deal with the rejection, and then get on with your life. Is that not what you want?”

“It is,” his headache was starting to get worse, and there was nausea stirring in his stomach, “I am not hesitant because I fear rejection, Sonia. You are mistaken.”

This only seemed to confuse her, and she narrowed her green eyes in disbelief. “I am mistaken? How so?”  
  
He didn’t really want to tell her what his fear was- since it was so stupid and he was certain she wouldn’t understand. However, it wasn’t as if Sonia would just give up like that. Taking a deep breath and setting his mug to the side, he finally decided to just go with it. It was no use holding back the real reason why he was afraid to confront the other.  
  
“I am fearful to come forward because I fear he will accept them, or that he will feel the same feelings. Okay?” Gundam finally rushed out, the sensation of nausea becoming worse.  
  
Sonia’s expression went from confused, to shocked, before finally settling on uncertainty as she processed his words. Gundam only felt worse the longer she was quiet, as if she was actually judging him for something like this. Chasing someone for 6 years and ending up in a situation where you could potentially date them only to feel fear was truly humiliating.

“Gundam…” Sonia began, moving a hand to his knee, “You need to stop this.”

The sigh that passed his lips was down right miserable. “...I understand.”

“Do you really, though? As your best friend, I… I have had enough of this. You are so deserving of this happiness you keep denying yourself,” she squeezed his knee. “You tell him tommorow so you can start moving on as soon as possible. Even if moving on means into a relationship.”

It sounded so easy when she said it like that. His natural reaction was to want to deny and refuse and put it off, but… with Sonia’s eyes staring at him, it was hard to. She was right. It was truly time to put an end to this.

“...Fine. Tommorow.” He replied, quickly speaking up when Sonia started to smile, “But, I require your assistance.”

* * *

Sonia was sweet. Probably way more sweet than she should have been, but it was something that Gundam liked about her. However, her sweetness did tend to make her ideas a bit too out there for Gundam's tastes. Her first idea had been some kind of mock of a disney movie, with Gundam getting down on one knee and proclaiming his love. He had gently shut her down, and they moved on. The ideas were slowly but surely decreasing in extravagance, much to Sonia's disappointment. 

"Okay, so the chocolates are a no. As well as the flowers." She huffed out, tucking her phone in her pocket. "He made it so difficult to get an answer. He even said he did not have a favorite flower. Who does not have a favorite flower!?"

Gundam only replied with a quiet hum as he watched the program that was on TV. The house was silent, as it had been all day, and it was relaxing for Gundam to be able to just watch his favorite TV shows and try not to think much about the meeting he had planned with Souda the next day. Sonia had suggested a fancier meeting spot than the park, but Gundam wanted to keep it simple. He kept having to remind her that this wasn't a romance film, but more of an issue that needed resolving. At least she seemed understanding. 

"Perhaps arriving with a gift is much too extravagant," Gundam said, slowly sitting up on the couch, "My comfort would be greatly increased if less pressure to arrive with a proper gift was on my shoulders."

"I suppose so. I just thought it might be a nice touch." she sighed out in response, "You could still do the snack thing, although it seems a little dumb in my honest opinion."

"Ill-advised perhaps, but not as you mortals call 'dumb'," he assured. "While your presence is a true blessing, I am dismayed to admit that my energy levels have been thoroughly drained. I would be pleased to get a commute to my place of dwelling in order to prepare for the next day."

Sonia blinked her long lashes and nodded, turning to look at the door. "Well, Chiaki should be home soon. She should be able to drive you, since she has the car... Are you sure you are ready for tomorrow?"

"Mortal, it seems that you hold more nerves towards tomorrow than I do."

"I know! I know, I am sorry," Sonia swept a piece of hair from her eyebrow, "It is just... You are my best friend. My earlier suggestion about you doing this tomorrow seems a bit harsh now. Are you sure you do not need more time?"

Gundam just sighed. Leave it to Sonia to feel guilty and give him a cop out. He had half a mind to take it, but he might never get the nerves to do this ever again if he did. Plus, Sonia was 100% right. He needed to get this over with. 

"My decision remains unchanged. A god like me is prepared for anything." He said firmly, giving her a small nod. She simply smiled in response, about to reply, when she heard the telltale sign of the front door opening. Chiaki quietly let herself in, her eyes meeting the two sitting on the couch in surprise, as if she hadn't been expecting them to be there. 

"Oh, hello. I'm home." 

"Chiaki! Just in time!" Sonia said excitedly, quickly crawling off the couch to greet her girlfriend. She pressed a gently kiss to the tip of her nose and wrapped a slender hand around her arm, pulling her towards the couch in excitement. "Gundam is finally going to admit his feelings tomorrow!"

Chiaki wrinkled her nose as she was pulled, her soft pink eyes meeting Gundam's for a moment before she spoke. "I heard. I wish you the best, Gundam."

Gundam would have normally said his thanks, but the look in her eyes said something else. As if she already knew something. It wasn't a negative look, it was more playful than anything. A look that said 'I already know what's going to happen'. Whatever the look was, it was comforting and it gave him some semblance of hope. Sonia didn't pick up on it, only squeezing her girlfriend's arm tighter in excitement. 

"He needs to head home now to prepare, do you think you could drive him?" she asked, leaning on Chiaki's arm, "I have been so busy planning I have not even started on dinner for us yet."

"I can drive him," Chiaki said quietly with a nod, "Just make something simple for dinner. I already ate a little at Hajime's house."

Gundam tuned out of their conversation at that point, deciding to get his stuff to get ready to head home. He pulled his coat on, along with his boots and scarf, making sure he had his phone and whatever else he had brought with him. It wasn't a lot, considering staying here had been incredibly last minute. By the time he was finished, Sonia was preparing something frozen in the kitchen and Chiaki was waiting for him by the couch while she typed on her phone. He bid a farewell to Sonia and headed for the door with Chiaki, trying to calm his nerves a bit. 

They didn't speak much as they left the house, which was common. They both weren't much for conversation. Gundam simply slipped into the passengers seat while Chiaki took the drivers seat and started the car. He had an urge to ask her about the look she had given him earlier, but he also didn't want to make her uncomfortable. There was a chance she had just been staring off without realizing it. 

Chiaki suddenly cleared her throat. "I can tell you want to ask me something. Go ahead."

Gundam was surprised by her words, but he didn't show it. He had always regarded Chiaki as one of the smarter mortals that walked this earth. Her ability to sense what others were thinking before they even spoke them was something akin to magic. He supposed she just had just grown good at reading people due to her shyness. 

"I... do not wish to pester you with such a foolish question." He replied, hoping she wouldn't push. 

"You wouldn't be pestering me, but okay..." She sighed out, sticking her bottom lip out, "I wouldn't worry about tomorrow too much. It won't be as bad as you think."

Gundam scoffed. "I'm an immortal god that has been to hell and back countless times, of course tomorrow wont be "bad". I can handle it."

Chiaki didn't reply this time, instead opting to hum out pleasurably as she drove. They stayed silent the rest of the way, the only sounds coming from the drum of the motor of the vehicle. Gundam actually almost slipped to sleep, but was quickly jolted from his relaxed mindset when Chiaki suddenly rolled the car to a stop in front of his house. He thanked her in his usual fashion and opened the door, stepping out into the cool October night and shutting the door. He expected Chiaki to just drive off, but was surprised to actually hear her call his name as he headed for the door, turning to see the window of the car rolled down so she could speak.   
  
"Um," she started, looking a bit lost for words for a split second before she composed herself again, "I don't like to gossip, but... I did see Souda today. And I talked to him. And he didn't feel any of the bad things about the kiss that you thought he did. So... yeah. Good luck."

She didn't wait for a response, just drove off into the night, leaving Gundam standing on the porch of his home with an unspoken question.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i watched haikyuu and its basically consumed my entire heart and soul (speaking of haikyuu if you like it and you love shiratorizawa [read my shiratorizawa chatfic](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9649676/chapters/21801524) bc its my current baby and i love it) but do not fear. i REFUSE to be one of those fanfic writers who abandons a fic. it might take me half a year to update BUT I WILL UPDATE. OH YES. 
> 
> anyways.


	5. you can hit my line like 24/7 (i'll be there to listen anytime)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rain, a stranger at the bus stop, and a date that's not really a date, but also kind of a date. Kazuichi's life still isn't easy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI HELLO EVERYONE!!! wow can u believe....8 months....*hands out a bunch of pitchforks so u can all kill me*
> 
> anyways, I literally got inspo to finish this chapter from a south park ff. so. Theres that. OH AS FOR EXPLANATIONS ON WHY IVE BEEN GONE: i got a serious boyfriend! and im going back to college! Yay!!!!! 
> 
> anyway i hope u enjoy this nyes... i hope everything is good this is literally the LONGEST chapter and i felt like evrything i wrote was bad but i hope! you guys will take this and like it and GOD I KNOW I MESSED UP THEIR CHARACTERIZATION AT THE END BUT I REALLY COULDN'T HELP IT....IM SO SORRY. this chapter really isnt as 'funny' as all the other chapters bc of...obvious reasons. (i just wanted to make it really fuckin awkward for everyone) but at the same time: theyre still big gay dorks. i hope ppl still care about this fic too Ahhhhhh okok im gonna shut up now so u guys can like. read it.
> 
> also a super secret character makes a cameo ;) keep an eye out

Waking up the next morning for Kazuichi had to have been even worse than the day before. His stomach was giving him pure hell due to the nerves of what was planned for that day, and it seemed the stress of the day before had caused him to have an untimely breakout all over his face. Perfect. Just what he needed. He dragged himself out of bed slowly, making sure to take as much time as possible in hopes that it would lengthen the time he had before the scheduled meeting time. Picking out his clothes was a nightmare as well, as everything he put on his body looked fucking atrocious. It took him nearly an hour to pick out a pair of black jeans and a black shirt and walk out his bedroom door. This day already had him thoroughly fucked up. 

He headed into the kitchen with no intention of eating, turning the corner to find both his roommates there dressed for work and eating breakfast. Leon seemed less than happy to be awake, even though it was a little past 9 AM, and stabbed viciously at a piece of toast with a fork. Mondo seemed to be faring better and even greeted Kazuichi with a head nod, moving his feet out of one of the chairs to give him a place to sit.   
  
"Thanks," Kazuichi mumbled out, sliding into the chair. 

Leon looked up at the destruction of his toast and frowned, his eyes meeting Mondo's with curiosity before they turned back to Kazuichi. "...Something up with you?"

Kazuichi just sighed and shook his head, "No. I mean, kinda. Yeah, but it's not..."

"Well, which one is it," Mondo grunted out, taking it upon himself to clean up Leon's breakfast mess. It seemed that dating Ishimaru had instilled some good habits about hygiene in him. Leon drummed his fingers impatiently on the kitchen table and looked his roommate up and down before letting out a soft chuckle. 

"Dude, you look like some emo kid that's trying to be edgy on Valentine's day," he snorted, an actual smile coming to his face for a moment, "Seriously, tell us what's up. You look like hell."

Kazuichi couldn't help cracking a smile at Leon's comment about his attire, sliding a bit deeper into the chair to get more comfortable. It wasn't that he didn't want to tell his roommates what was up, it was just... It was a bit embarrassing. Not the meeting part, but how nervous he was about it. He wanted to seem cool and collected in front of the two of them. Oh well, it didn't really matter, he supposed. They'd find out about it later anyway.  
  
"It's really nothing, I promise. I just... have a meeting with Gundam today." he finally said, "We're gonna talk and stuff."

Mondo raised his eyebrow from the kitchen sink, "A date?"

Kazuichi knew it wasn't a jab but an honest question this time and shook his head, "No. At least I don't think so. We're just going to talk, really."

"Good for you, bro," Leon said earnestly, balling his hand into a fist to playfully punch Kazuichi in the arm, "Don't be nervous. It's just Gundam. The same Gundam who talks like a lunatic and cries about animals dying in movies."

Kazuichi smiled again at that, feeling thankful that his roommates were being so compassionate today. It really was a rare occurrence. "Yeah, I know."

"If anything interesting happens, text me," Mondo said suddenly, drying his wet hands on a kitchen towel and checking the time on his watch, "I have to get going now, shit. See you later."

He was out of the door before Leon and Kazuichi could even say goodbye, leaving the two of them to soak in the mid-morning silence. Leon was most certainly a talker in every aspect, yet he remained silent as if he was afraid to disturb Kazuichi's thoughts. Kazuichi was thankful for the moment. They hadn't exactly been close in high school but the move to roommates had really been the cause of their closeness. You might even call them best friends.

"You're gonna do great dude," Leon broke the silence as he stood from the table and dumped his remaining breakfast in the trash, "Gundam, more like Gun-dumb. God, what an idiot..."

Kazuichi frowned and tried to ignore the feeling of protectiveness that rose in his chest at the others words. He had to agree that Leon was right about Gundam being an idiot- everyone knew Gundam was an idiot, but Kazuichi kind of wanted to be the only one to call him an idiot. Not in a mean way, of course, more like a playful way. A... boyfriend way.

"Oh, fuck me!" Kazuichi moaned suddenly, slapping his hands over his face at the thought. He must just be tired. Yeah, that was it, he was just exhausted and his mind was running a mile a minute and he was nervous about meeting Gundam and his pants were kind of tight around the thighs-

"Dude," Leon suddenly breathed out, shaking him out of his mindless stupor, "You've gotta stop doing that."

"Do you think I can call in sick?" Kazuichi mumbled out miserably as he dragged his hands down his face.

Leon simply chuckled and shook his head, "To a love confession? Not possible," 

Kazuichi would have snapped at him for that comment if he had any kind of power or will too. Instead, he simply stood from the table and shoved his hands into his pockets, making sure he had both his phone and his wallet this time. He had at least a good two hours before he had to be there, and he really didn't want to just hang around the house until he had to drive himself to their meeting spot. Walking there seemed like a refreshing thought. Or maybe taking the bus? He didn't really care at this point, he just wanted to be outside. 

 "I'm heading out now, see ya," He mumbled, staying just long enough to hear Leon tell him goodbye and wish him luck. 

* * *

 Okay, maybe Kazuichi should have checked the fucking forecast before he made the big decision to walk to the park. The world apparently wanted to take his already stressful day and make it super-stressful, as evidenced by the fact that it started to fucking pour rain halfway through his walk. It didn't even take moments for his clothes and hair to get literally soaked to the bone, leaving everything sticking to him like wet tissue. The park was also well across town and already an hour and a half walk, so turning back to go home and change wasn't really an option, unless he wanted to be late. Which he didn't. He wanted this over with as soon as possible. 

"Great..." Kazuichi looking around the street block as if he might find an answer. An automatic clothes-dryer perhaps. However, his eyes were drawn to the bus stop across the street. Yeah, he supposed that would work. He could get a ride to the park and hopefully dry off a little in the meantime. He made sure there were no cars on the road before he bolted across the street, wincing as a few little droplets of water caught in his eyelashes. The bus bench was open, save for one spot taken by some nicely dressed man with an umbrella. Kazuichi slid into the seat beside him and paid him no mind, instead choosing to fiddle with the ends of his wet sleeves. Hopefully, he could fix himself up a little so that Gundam wouldn't mistake him for some wet homeless man.

Kazuichi had barely been paying attention to his surroundings as he sat there and tried to make himself look more presentable, just feeling the drops of rain hit his face. Everything with Gundam had built up so much, it was almost as if it was threatening to crack and break him down. Everyone had joked and laughed about, and the only compassion seemingly came from Hinata and Chiaki. Everything that had happened was beginning to feel like some kind of sick performance. Like, maybe this was just all a cruel joke and he was just going to get humiliated at the park by all his friends. Kazuichi snorted humorlessly at that.

Suddenly, the water hitting his face stopped, and Kazuichi blinked himself out of his thoughts to realize that there was an umbrella covering him now. The hell...? 

"Sorry, was that too... forward of me?" Came a meek-sounding voice from beside him. Kazuichi whipped his head to the side to meet the golden eyes of the stranger that had just been sitting beside him a moment ago. The nicely dressed stranger from before was now right next to him, and Kazuichi found himself staring at his long eyelashes and look of concern. Holy fuck. This guy was gorgeous.  He was quite literally one of the prettiest people he'd seen in his life, and here he was just sharing his umbrella with a wet, mopey stranger.

"Huh?" Kazuichi stuttered out in embarrassment, having trouble processing exactly what was happening. Oh geez, he should probably actually say something instead of staring at him like a dog. 

"I asked if this was too forward of me," The stranger clarified, gesturing to the umbrella, "You'll get a cold if you get any wetter, and you looked kind of out of it, so..."

"No, no, you're fine! Don't worry, thank you," Kazuichi could feel himself blushing and desperately wished he could hide it, "I'm... Souda Kazuichi, nice to meet you."

The stranger smiled at him and extended a hand, not paying any mind to the fact that Kazuichi was dripping wet, "Shuichi Saihara, nice to meet you."

Shuichi Saihara... Kazuichi liked the sound of that. It sounded comforting. He took Saihara's smaller hand in his own and shook it, taking care to not drip any water on the others nice clothing. He looked like he was dressed for something important, which was odd when Kazuichi considered that they were sitting together at a bus stop. Saihara didn't even seem to care if he did though, simply withdrawing his hand and settling it into his lap once he was done. Fuck. Kazuichi kind of wished he was dressed as nice as this man. 

"Can I ask why you're out in the rain like this? I mean, not that I'm judging," Saihara jumbled his words out in a way that let on he was a bit nervous. 

"I, um... It's kind of complicated, honestly," He honestly wasn't sure if he wanted to subject this poor stranger to all his issues, no matter how tempting it was. Saihara just hummed out in understanding and twirled the umbrella above them, sending little droplets of water in every which direction. Some of the water hit him in the face, clinging to his thick lashes and running down his cheeks. 

"I'm sorry to hear that. I won't force you to talk since we're strangers, but sometimes talking helps," Saihara sighed out, a look of wistfulness crossing his face, "I promise you, it does,"

Well, for whatever reason, that seemed to convince Kazuichi. This stranger was obviously being kind out of his own nature, even if he was a bit timid and reserved, and unlike his friends, he had absolutely no bias or ulterior motive. Fine. What did he have to lose?

"Alright," Kazuichi straightened himself up and took a deep breath. He could do this. Saihara perked up as the man prepared himself to talk, something that comforted Kazuichi. Yes, he could trust this stranger. He could fully trust him-at least he hoped he could-and maybe get some non-bullshit advice. 

"So, I kissed this guy that's kind of my friend, but, like, not my friend? I don't know, we were kinda rivals in high school, but," Kazuichi paused to take a breath, "I don't know, but I kissed him, and he freaked, and now all our friends are just... mocking us and making me feel like shit. Plus, now I gotta meet this guy today and I kind of just don't wanna do that at all."

Saihara nodded slowly and shuffled around on the bench so he could face Kazuichi a bit better, his grip tightening on the umbrella. "I see... and you're sure that's all?"

Dammit. Of course, this dude would totally catch on that that wasn't all that he was feeling. Kazuichi groaned and rubbed his face with his hands tiredly, hoping that he'd be in control of whatever came out of his mouth next. Of course, ever since he kissed Gundam he'd been juggling with the issue, but he hadn't wanted to say it aloud. Fuck, he still didn't want to say it out loud.

"Dammit, no," Kazuichi pushed at his temples with his fingers before dropping his hands back into his lap, "When I kissed this guy, I kind of... liked it. And I don't really know how to feel about it. Like, yeah, I don't care that he's a guy, but I never imagined I'd kind of, um, end up..."

"...liking him?" Saihara interjected after Kazuichi failed to finish his train of thought. Even though this stranger was the one to say it to him, it was like a literal weight had been pulled from Kazuichi's chest. Yeah, what Saihara had said was true. No matter how much he wanted to deny it, he... liked Gundam. Stupid, hamster-loving Gundam. 

"Yeah," Kazuichi breathed out and settled back against the bench, "I think I like him, but the chance of us ever being together? It's just impossible. Why even try?"

Saihara lips curled into a frown suddenly and he let out a huff of annoyance, surprising Kazuichi out of his stupor for a moment. Shit, had he offended him? He really hoped he hadn't. He should have kept his dumb mouth shut, dammit. Saihara's face was unreadable, really, but it looked like he was debating saying something. Maybe he was going to tell him what a pussy he was?

"My husband is an astronaut," Saihara suddenly spoke, boring his words into Kazuichi with a determined stare, "Well, he was training to be one. When it came down to the final tests and physicals, he wasn't healthy enough to be granted the title astronaut. Something with his blood that would put him at risk in space. I thought it would destroy him after he spent so many years yearning for his goal, but you know what he told me?"

Kazuichi was at a loss for words as he stared at the other's face, wondering if he should even bother replying before Saihara smiled and continued, "He just gave me this big, happy grin and told me 'The impossible is possible!', and went right back to training."

"Don't you think my situation is a little less, y'know, extreme-"

"That's the point though. My husband still isn't healthy enough to be an astronaut, and maybe he never will be! But he's still trying, even if it is 'impossible'," Saihara used his fingers as air quotes for the word, "Why would you say that getting together with this guy is impossible? You like him, don't you?"

"Well, yeah, I guess?" Kazuichi tried to hide how unnerved he was by the other's attitude. Saihara gripped him by the shoulders then, shaking the umbrella so harshly that water flew into his lap and soaked his nice clothing. 

"Then tell him and see what happens," His tone was so serious, so demanding, it sent a chill straight up Kazuichi's spine. He had nothing else to say, really. The past three days of his life had been fucking hell, but who's fault was that?  Blaming it on his friends helped him cope with this shit, but really he supposed it was his own fault. He was the one telling himself all this confusing shit, his friends had just been telling him what they knew. Fuck. He kind of felt like an ass now.

As if on cue, the bus slowly rolled up to a stop in front of them, filling the awkward silence that had followed Saihara's little outburst. The smaller man suddenly seemed more aware of what he'd just done and flinched, pulling his hands away from Kazuichi quickly with a look of embarrassment. God must have sent him this stranger as an apology for the past three days, he was sure of it now.

"S-Sorry, now _that_  really was too forward of me," Saihara sounded nervous, reaching up to rub the top of his forehead. Kazuichi's silence had obviously led him to believe that maybe he'd crossed a line. Shit, it was actually the opposite, really. This dude had probably just saved a tiny part of his life with his speech, even if it was cheesy as hell.

"No! You're right," Kazuichi assured, snapping the others attention back to him, "You're totally right, shit, fuck!"

Saihara perked up at the others vulgar response and covered his mouth as he let out an amused and adorable giggle. Fucking hell, if this guy wasn't married and if he himself hadn't just admitted his feelings for Gundam, he might have asked for this strangers number. The doors to the bus opened and people began to file out onto the sidewalk, bustling past the two and signaling it was time for their meeting to come to an end. Saihara stood and held the umbrella over Kazuichi as the crowd began to disperse, offering him another smile as the rain began to pelt away at him and soak his clothing.

"Here, you can take my umbrella, I don't need it," Saihara said, reaching to grab Kazuichi's hand and tuck the umbrella handle into it, "I think you should walk to wherever you're going to meet this guy so you can have some more time to think. The bus is pretty full anyway."

"Are you sure? I can get it back to you-" Kazuichi was cut off by the other man shaking his head.

"No need, it's fine. Just think of it as a good luck gift, okay?" Saihara smiled at him again, and turned towards the doors to the bus, "The bus driver is getting antsy, I should probably go. Good luck, Kazuichi!"

Kazuichi was so stunned by the other's kindness, he didn't even find it weird when the other called him by his first name. All he could do was grip the handle of the umbrella and wave awkwardly at the man as he boarded the bus and disappeared out of sight. He stood there for a moment and basked in the afterglow of their meeting, his mind running over every word Saihara had said. _The impossible is possible_... As cheesy as it was, he wanted to believe in it. Maybe Gundam wasn't helpless, and maybe he was just thinking too hard about this.

"Well... only one way to find out, yeah?" He asked himself, turning on his heel and heading in the direction of the park. His mind stilled mulled over the thoughts of Saihara as he walked, only to realize he'd never even thanked the man for his words. Dammit. Well, he supposed that taking Saihara's advice would be thanks enough. 

* * *

 Kazuichi kind of wished he hadn't let Saihara talk him into walking the rest of the way to the park. Not because of the rain, but really because he hadn't realized how long he had spent sitting at that fucking bus stop. Fortunately, he wasn't officially late yet, but he would definitely be cutting it close at this point. He picked up the pace a little as he briskly walked down the sidewalk, seeing the park just in his sights and letting out a sigh of relief. Six minutes to spare, and he'd made it. 

The park was relatively dead due to the rain, save for a few toddlers in bright colored raincoats being chased by their parents around the fountain. Kazuichi couldn't help the smile that formed on his face as he watched the family giggle and play, especially when it was so wet outside. The parent's looked so in love with everything, the weather, their children, _each other_. Kazuichi was almost jealous, really. He'd never gotten that with his own family, especially since his mother had died when he was so young and his father was a drunk. Maybe, though, _he_ could have that family in the future. Yeah. He liked the sound of that. 

Kazuichi whistled quietly to himself as he headed down the sidewalk towards the fountain, looking around the empty park to see if he spotted Gundam. Shit, he hadn't even thought of it, but what if Gundam wasn't going to show up because of the rain? The pink haired man cursed lightly to himself as he took out his phone to make sure the other hadn't texted him asking to meet elsewhere. Thankfully, he hadn't gotten any messages from the other, but he did have a few from his friends. 

 **Leon, 10:45 am:** U GOT THIS MAN!!! GOOD LUCK. text me when its over. Sayaka says good luck too!!!

 

 **Hajime, 11:12 am:** don't freak over this, youve got this. just go with your gut, and like dont throw up on him or cry 

 

 **Hajime, 11:13 am:** just like, have hope or something. idk, good luck. im always behind you 100%. soul friends for life

 

 **Komaeda, 11:45 am:** eat dirt eat dirt eat dirt eat dirt eat dirt eat dirt eat dirt eat dirt eat dirt ea

"Stupid fucking Komaeda," Kazuichi huffed to himself as he read the last message, clicking his phone off and shoving it into his pocket. Well, at least he had Hajime and Leon's support. As well as Saihara's advice. Yeah, he could do this. He decided to bide his time on a bench nearby the fountain, even though the seat was covered in water. Not that it mattered, even with the umbrella his hair had only just barely begun to dry, and his pants were still soaked. Kazuichi snorted when he realized how ironic it was. The last time he'd seen Gundam he'd been soaking wet from the pool, and this time he'd be soaking wet from the rain. 

Kazuichi idly wondered what Gundam would be wear. Probably all black, with his stupid scarf. He kinda wished Gundam didn't have an obsession with hiding his face. When they kissed at the part, Kazuichi had finally gotten a good look at his face up close and it was... not ugly, to say the least. In fact, he was almost sure the other had been sporting some stubble on his chin. The mechanic hadn't put much thought into it before, but he rather liked the idea of stubble. Definitely not on himself, but on Gundam, it looked nice and felt nice. He hummed to himself as he thought about it, his mind eventually wanding on how the other would look with a beard or a mustache. 

His thoughts were so consuming and satisfying, he barely noticed there was someone in front of him until he noticed the shoes partway hidden under the umbrella covering his head.  Slowly, Kazuichi lifted the umbrella, his eyes traveling up the person's body until he met Gundam's face with his own. Shit, yeah. Why the fuck was he just sitting here daydreaming about him when the real thing was right in front of him? Gundam's expression was totally unreadable to him, but the only thing that Kazuichi noticed was that Gundam _wasn't wearing his scarf._

"Are you just going to stare, mortal, or do you plan on greeting me?" Gundam was the first to speak, breaking the awkward vow of silence between them. Kazuichi felt his temple throb and he quickly stood, hoping that he didn't look too bad. Fuck, now he was really nervous. 

"You just surprised me, that's all," Kazuichi mumbled out, "Plus, you were the one that approached me, you probably should have said hi first,"

Gundam didn't reply to that and crossed his arms over his chest, looking away from the other as his cheeks seemingly darkened in color. He still looked cute when he blushed, and Kazuichi really wished he could have gotten a picture of it then and there. Especially if this was going to go bad and he never got to see Gundam again. He kinda wanted something to remember his face like that. 

Finally, Gundam seemed to compose himself enough again and turned his head back to look at Kazuichi. Suddenly, his eyes went wide and he began to look him up and down frantically. Shit, was there something wrong with him? The mechanic looked down at himself for any bugs or stains on his clothing before he realized the other must have noticed he was soaking wet. Of course. 

"O-Oh yeah, I got a little wet on the way here," Kazuichi said, hoping his words came out with some tone of amusement, "See, I didn't have an umbrella when I first left, but this guy at the bus stop loaned me his and-"

He didn't even get to finish what he was saying, because the next minute Gundam's arms were on either side of him, wrapping a black coat around his shoulders. Now it was Kazuichi's turn to blush. He hadn't even noticed Gundam had been taking his coat off, and now the other was standing there clad in a shirt that was just a little too fitted around his chest and biceps. Dammit, he looked nice, and Kazuichi just looked like a wet paper bag. He really should have walked back home to change first.

"You mortals are extremely asinine," Gundam muttered, most likely to himself before he spoke to Kazuichi, "You need to take stronger measures to ensure you do not fall ill in this weather. We can't remain outdoors while you're in this condition, we must find somewhere else to inhabit."

"I'm fine, really, Gundam-" It didn't matter what Kazuichi said because Gundam had already wrapped a hand around his arm and was pulling him along the sidewalk towards the street. Dammit, they'd finally met for the first time since their stupid kiss and all he'd succeeded in doing was causing the other more trouble. There was nowhere near the park to really go either, as it was in the dead center of a residential area. Gundam still wasn't speaking as they walked, and Kazuichi felt his confidence from earlier with Saihara beginning to slip. They eventually reached the street and Gundam released his arm to take his phone out of his pocket and fiddle with it silently for a moment. 

It was only a few minutes, but it felt like a lifetime between them as they stood there. The breeder finally finished with whatever was on his phone and tucked it into his pocket, turning to the other and catching his attention, "I summoned a taxicab to transport us to a nearby restaurant cafe,"

"Oh," Kazuichi didn't know what else to say, "Thanks,"

So now Gundam was taking him to coffee now? Kazuichi tried not to smile to himself when he thought about it since the air was already tense between them, but it was hard. Even though they were meeting with each other in such terribly awkward circumstances, Kazuichi couldn't help but feel like them being together like this was right. He pulled the coat tighter around his shoulders and shuddered, feeling the chill of his damp clothes finally start to get to him. The taxi didn't take long to arrive, thankfully, and they both seemed to let out a sigh of relief. 

Kazuichi went to reach for the door handle before Gundam beat it to him and opened the car door. At first, Kazuichi thought the other was going to just get in, but he actually stood there. Holding the door open for him. Holy shit, wait-

Gundam raised an eyebrow at him, "Well, Mortal? Get in,"

Kazuichi stared at him for a moment before he fumbled with the umbrella he was holding to get it shut. While there was no pressure, he couldn't help but feel like he was on a time limit and tried to get it closed so they could both get in. Eventually, he was able to get it closed and he scrambled quickly to slide into the taxi, taking the farthest seat so that Gundam could comfortably slide into the seat next to him. The silence was deafening after Gundam closed the door, the only sounds coming from the raindrops on the windows as the driver shifted the car into gear and drove off. 

Kazuichi thought they'd stay silent, really, and decided to preoccupy his time by staring out the window as they drove. But it wasn't long before he heard Gundam clear his throat and shift his weight on the seat of the car. Shit. Kazuichi closed his eyes and shifted his own weight, mentally preparing himself for what was about to come. This was it. 

"...Mortal, has your... weekend been favorable to you?" Gundam finally mumbled out, almost sounding embarrassed. Kazuichi blinked and looked over at the man, a bit surprised that that had been what he opened with. He was expecting him to immediately go in for the kill and ask about the kiss, but he was actually asking about how his weekend had gone? 

"Oh, uh, kinda," Kazuichi replied, "I've had better. Friends are annoying, you know how it is. How about you?"

Gundam didn't seem at all surprised by his response and nodded solemnly as the car slowed down for a stop light, "I apologize for our friend's insolent behaviors. It seems that they suffer from elementary ways of acting. My weekend has been rather favorable to me, though."

The mechanic snorted out of his nose and shook his head, "No kidding. It's like being in middle school all over again sometimes." 

Gundam actually seemed to take some humor from that comment and let out a hum of what could have been laughter. It was hard to tell. Kazuichi wasn't sure he'd ever seen Gundam laugh earnestly and not in that over-the-top villainy way. But the smile that had crossed his face when he had attempted to laugh... that was what really got to Kazuichi. He kinda wanted to see it for the rest of his life, if possible. 

"I deem those foolish mortals are even more wretched than they were in middle school," Gundam mused, turning his head to look out the door. The car was slowly coming up to the cafe, and Kazuichi was happy about that. Talking with Gundam wasn't turning out to be too bad, but he certainly didn't like how they weren't really alone due to the driver. The car slowly rolled to a stop in front of the cafe and the driver unlocked the doors for them and mumbled out the total for the ride. Since the cafe had been close it wasn't too much, but Gundam wasted no time getting out his wallet and handing the driver a ten dollar bill. 

Kazuichi's face flushed in mild embarrassment as the other paid for their ride and quietly opened the door to step out onto the street. He hurriedly moved to open the umbrella for the both of them, holding it over himself and the car door so that Gundam wouldn't get wet as he himself got out. Not that Kazuichi would have minded him being wet. He had an idea that he'd probably look pretty good like that. Finally, the two of them were alone again, standing together under an umbrella in front of a cafe that was probably too tiny for its own good. 

"Shall we enter?" Gundam asked, moving to take the handle of the umbrella, "The sooner we dine, the sooner you shall recover from your current state,"

"Oh, yeah, sure," Kazuichi tried not to stare at the other's hand as he took the handle from him, "It is kind of cold."

Kazuichi took the few steps towards the door, inhaling a deep breath once his back was to Gundam. He could hear him messing with the umbrella and struggling to get it shut before he finally followed him inside to the warm restaurant. Shit, he was still really nervous. Especially now that they were practically on a cute coffee shop date. Could it even really be called a date? Or maybe it was just two guys being dudes. Wait, no-

"You go seek us a seating arrangement, and I shall go order us something to satisfy our hunger," Gundam said, passing off the umbrella to the other with a nod. Kazuichi nodded in affirmation and watched as the breeder stalked off to the ordering counter, feeling his nerves settle just a bit. Okay, so food was good. Kazuichi liked food, and eating food meant there were fewer chances for awkward silence. Perfect. 

The mechanic searched the tiny cafe for a place that would suit their needs and be plenty private. His eyes eventually landed on a tiny isolated table in the corner with two chairs facing each other. There were no other customers seated around it either, which made it the perfect spot for them to sit and eat. _And talk_ , he reminded himself. This wasn't officially a date yet, and they still hadn't approached the reason why they decided to meet up today. Gundam was still ordering, so Kazuichi made his way to the table quickly and slid into the chair to wait for him. Maybe he should have gone with Gundam because now he had no idea what the other was ordering him. Dammit, hopefully, it wasn't any nasty vegan shit. 

He fiddled with his sleeves a bit, pleased to find that his clothes were actually drying. Perhaps it was from Gundam's coat, or the warmness of the shop, but he felt a lot better now. Still nervous, but not like he was about to have the worst time of his life. Gundam eventually finished their order and turned around to search for Kazuichi before he spotted him and headed over. Shit, now the nerves were returning. 

"It slipped my simple mind to inquire what you may have preferred, so I requested them to prepare you something on the sweeter side," Gundam said, sounding a tad embarrassed. 

"It's cool, I probably wouldn't have known what to order anyway," Kazuichi supplied in response, trying to make Gundam feel less embarrassed, "As long as it's, y'know, edible,"

"I frequent this location often, as it is located close to my business. I assure you, mortal, it's beyond edible,"

That was most likely Gundam's way of saying 'I come here a lot, and it's really good', so Kazuichi decided to just roll with it. Just because he kinda liked Gundam now didn't mean he wasn't still weird as hell. As much as Kazuichi wanted to just keep their small talk going, he knew they had to bite the bullet sometime and get the more serious discussion underway. If they didn't do it now, they probably would stay dancing around the subject all day. Okay, he could do this. No one had ever died of embarrassment before, right?

"So..." Kazuichi started, "This is real nice and all but... don't you think we should kind of talk about, um, Friday?"

That seemed to kill the mood instantly. Gundam's semi-smile dropped from his face like the gravity of earth had taken it and his eyes immediately darted elsewhere. Dammit, maybe Kazuichi should have waited a little longer, enjoyed the moment with him for a bit. But nooo, he just had to open his big ass mouth and ruin it. Gundam's hands quietly tapped at the tabletop for a moment as he prepared himself. The silence was thick between them and the clinking of silverware from the kitchen seemed a lot quieter now. 

"I understand," Gundam said, finally turning his eyes back to Kazuichi, "I suppose we should talk,"

"Yeah..." Kazuichi felt awful now, completely at a loss for what to say. He supposed confessing could be the first step, but at the same time, it seemed too quick. Talking about why they had kissed and why Gundam had reacted the way he did seemed the best route. Kazuichi really wanted to know why he had run away, and why he was avoiding talking about the reason they had even met in the first place. _Here we go_... Kazuichi thought, opening his mouth to start speaking before Gundam let out an uncharacteristically loud sigh. 

"I apologize for kissing you like that," Gundam sounded guilty and Kazuichi had no idea why, "It was not appropriate for me to perform such an act, and I did not think of the consequences."

Well, whatever Kazuichi had been expecting, it certainly wasn't a fucking apology. The other had no reason to apologize, especially since he hadn't been the one to initiate the kiss. As far as Kazuichi was concerned, it was his own stupid ass mistake and Gundam the unwilling victim. Not to mention that an apology isn't what they needed; they needed to talk about all the confusing shit surrounding the kiss. Gundam seemed to sense his confusion and Kazuichi was quick to compose himself. No, they had to get some things straight first.

"Hold up, if anyone should be apologizing, it's me," Kazuichi said, shaking his head, "I'm the one that kissed you, dude, so I'm sorry. You were, like, yelling your damn head off at me and I was gonna cover your mouth shut, but I kind of ended up kissing you instead? If that makes sense."

He had expected Gundam's reaction to be... a lot different. Maybe relief or confusion, or surprised even, but the look the other gave him was just plain sad. His eyes went downcast and his hands curled into fists as he listened to Kazuichi. Dammit, fuck, what was he doing wrong? Everything he said to the other seemed to be wrong. Why couldn't life just be a shitty Lifetime movie you'd watch at three in the morning? Kazuichi wasn't sure how much more he could take of this. 

"I... see," Gundam sounded just as sad as he looked, "I didn't come to that conclusion, I was certain that I had been the one to initiate-"

"F-Forget who kissed who for a minute, okay," Kazuichi cut him off before he could continue, a little embarrassed with how loud he was. He scanned the restaurant to see if he'd drawn any unnecessary attention to the two of them before continuing, "I'm sorry, I'm just... getting really confused now. Why are you acting so different? And, like, why are we at a cafe? Why is this _hard_ to talk about? I get that it's kind of awkward or whatever, but I really, _really_ feel like I'm missing something at this point."

"You're not missing anything," Gundam said it, but Kazuichi wasn't convinced in the slightest. He groaned and slapped his hands over his face, sinking down in his chair as he tried to process his thoughts for a minute. Maybe he shouldn't tell him he liked him if this was how they were going to fucking communicate. Maybe he was sad that they had kissed and didn't want it brought up? But then why even meet with him in the first place. They had been having such a great time until he had brought up the stupid fucking kiss, so maybe Gundam had brought him here to act like it had never happened?

"Okay, if I'm not missing anything, then like... what's going on with you?" Kazuichi mumbled through his hands. He really didn't want to see the other's face right now. "Please, Gundam, just stop and talk to me. About you! Can we talk about what I'm doing wrong because it's going to kill me if you look at me like that again,"

"You're not doing anything wrong-"

"Then why did you run away! Why are all our friends making some big deal out of this, as if they all saw it coming or some shit? I thought we were going to talk about this, not apologize and dance around it," Kazuichi pulled his hands away from his face only to see that Gundam had that same look on his face, "I just... can you tell me what I did to make you look so fucking sad?"

Gundam didn't reply right away. By now, the outbursts had to have gotten the attention of the staff, but neither of them seemed to care. It was basically a showdown at this point. Gundam's sad face had disappeared and in its place was a look that was so tired, it was surprising to Kazuichi. He took a deep breath and shut his eyes as he brought a hand to his temple, pressing at it before he finally spoke. 

"...Kazuichi, have you ever experienced affection for someone who was so utterly oblivious and stupid that it made your head hurt?" he mumbled, keeping his eyes shut. Kazuichi didn't know how to respond, really.  What the fuck was the other getting at? The way he had used his first name threw him off as well. It seemed out of character and so intimate for the moment.

Gundam took a moment to open his eyes before he spoke again "You make my head hurt so horrendously, it's incomparable to any poison or ritual I've undergone."

Kazuichi furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, "I make your head hurt...?" 

"Yes. You're so foolish and absorbed with your own being that my mind can't even begin to wrap itself around your existence. Why my heart chose you as it's suitor, I have no earthly idea. And now you're here with me, questioning me, confusing me even more. Shall you show me no mercy and make things simple?"

The next thing he knew, Gundam was leaning over the table and pushing his face dangerously close to Kazuichi's. He didn't even have a chance to process the others words before the other bore his eyes into his with a look of frustration. All the other noises seemed to deafen out and it was as if the two of them were alone there, faces barely touching and the tension thick. Kazuichi sucked in a breath and held it, afraid to let it go and ruin the moment.

"I experi- No, I like you, Kazuichi. I always have."

What.

The. 

Double Fuck.

Kazuichi was glad he hadn't eaten anything before he came because he would have 100% thrown up all over the other. Gundam simply pulled away from his face and sat back in his chair as Kazuichi floundered over the others sudden confession. No, the apology had been way more expected than Gundam _fucking_ Tanaka confessing to _him_. Maybe Gundam was right, he really was an _idiot_  if he couldn't tell that the other was acting like this because he had a fucking crush on him, and apparently had for a while. How long exactly was a while anyway? He was pretty sure the dude hated his guts for most of the time they knew each other. 

He didn't even have a chance to speak before a waitress suddenly appeared by their table, holding a large tray of what was presumably their food. Her uncomfortable expression said it all- that she had likely seen and heard everything. Gundam didn't seem to mind and nodded as she placed the dishes of food and drinks onto their table. Kazuichi heard her say something about a turkey sandwich as she placed a dish in front of his face, but he couldn't even begin to care. His mind was still reeling from the fact that the other liked him. Oh, shit, wait. That's right.

_Kazuichi fucking liked him back._

"I hope you are satisfied with the likes of a turkey sandwich," Gundam spoke like he hadn't just dropped a huge bomb on him, "I recall you claiming an affection for sandwiches,"

Kazuichi shook his head in disbelief, "Wait a minute, wait a minute! You fucking like me?"

Gundam picked at his salad with his fork and took a sip of his tea, "I've felt affection for you since our high school days, but I thank you for noticing now. I presume a mere mortal such as yourself is unable to understand this, so I'd prefer if you allowed us to feast in silence."

"What!? Dude, shut the fuck up," Kazuichi didn't care how rude he sounded, the other was acting so fucking stupid, "You're telling me you've liked me since fucking high school and I've never noticed?"

"Precisely. Now allow me to feast in uninterrupted silence-"

"No! No, no, you listen to me!" Kazuichi said, startling the other out of his depressing little monologue, "I've been kicking my own ass and feeling like shit this whole weekend for liking you, and you're telling me you liked me back the whole time!?"

Now it was Gundam's time to be shocked. His fork clattered loudly against his plate and he looked so uncharacteristically surprised it was almost funny. His mouth had dropped open and his eyes had gone wide, and Kazuichi swore his pompadour deflated just a tiny bit. This was definitely the part of the Lifetime movie where they would share some dramatic kiss, but instead, they just sat there and stared at each other like they had each just muttered the secrets to the universe. Kazuichi groaned to himself and sank back into his seat, unable to believe what was happening. So, that was that? They'd been acting like fucking assholes this whole time for nothing? He supposed they should have just fucked right there and made it official at this point.

"...Dude, this is a fucking mess," Kazuichi shook his head, "So I guess we just like each other now? What do we fucking do now?"

"I... I have no experiences for situations like this, but..." the other trailed off and looked around the restaurant, "I... I did not foresee myself reaching this goal,"

Kazuichi raised his brow at him and straightened himself up in his seat, moving to grab his sandwich. Fucking love confession or not, he needed something in his stomach now. Whatever they were supposed to do next... they'd figure that out after his turkey sandwich was filling his stomach. He took a large bite of the food and chewed, wishing that he had had more of an apetite. It probably would have tasted really good had it not been for the situation at hand.

"Well," Kazuichi mumbled through his bite of food, swallowing it down before he continued, "I guess... this is a date, then?"

Gundam couldn't have hidden his blush if he wanted too, especially since he didn't have his scarf. He simply nodded and resumed picking at this salad, "It appears that fate has led the likes of us to a 'date' as you mortals call it,"

"Dude, if we're on a date, don't call me mortal, please," Kazuichi chuckled so the other would know he was just teasing. Gundam didn't laugh with him, but his lips did curl up just the slightest as he pushed around his salad with his fork. All at once, the sounds of restaurants returned, as if everything had been on pause for the two of them to sort their shit out. Well, they did still have a lot to sort out, but that could wait for another time he supposed. Kazuichi took another bite of his sandwich and watched the other struggle to stab a cherry tomato with his fork. God, he was a fucking nerd, but... Kazuichi liked nerds. Yeah.

He smiled to himself again and sighed. Yeah, he could probably get used to doing this. Especially with Gundam.

* * *

The rest of their time at the restaurant ended up being entirely uneventful, complete with lots of awkward small talk and some failed attempts at flirting on both ends. Most of Gundam's flirting was lost in the translation of the over-exaggerated way he spoke, and Kazuichi just plain sucked at it. The matter of the bill also ended in a bit of a feud between the two, both of them trying to one-up the other and pay for it. It seemed that competing with each other was just in their nature at this point, not that either of them minded. Gundam ended up paying for it this time, which Kazuichi swore to that he'd take care of the next one.  Gundam ended up calling another cab for them while they waited for their check so they wouldn't have to wait in the rain. Not saying that either of them would have minded standing and sharing the umbrella on the sidewalk.

The taxi ended up arriving just as they got their receipt and they were able to beat the rain as they hurried through it and to the car waiting for them. Gundam still held the door open for the other, much to Kazuichi's embarrassment and they slid into the seats together. Neither of them bothered to speak on the way back home, simply enjoying the moment. Well, that, and Kazuichi was sure that they were both still at a loss for what to say. Where they, like, supposed to hold hands now? Maybe cuddle? Who fucking knew, man. 

Eventually, the taxi rolled up to Kazuichi's house, and he was surprised to see that they had made it so quickly. He tried to quell the feeling of disappointment of their meeting have to end so soon already after it had just gotten enjoyable. Yet, he supposed they did like each other now. So perhaps that meant they would be having a second, more 'official' date soon. Gundam opened the door for them again and told the driver to wait as he walked the other up to the door, stepping out and getting the umbrella ready for the two of them as he did so. Kazuichi felt bad that the other would have to pay for the taxi fare again, but he supposed it couldn't be helped. 

Together they walked up the sidewalk to Kazuichi's house, the umbrella still hovering over both of them and keeping them dry. Gundam's black coat was now on Kazuichi's body and he wasn't sure he wanted to take it off at this point. God, that sounded gay, but it was the truth. 

Kazuichi finally cleared his throat to break his silence, "Uh, thanks for... everything today. Like the food and the taxi rides, and your coat."

Gundam didn't look over at him as he spoke, probably from embarrassment, "Do not waste your breath with simple thanks. I, as a god, take pleasure in treating the ones I have affection for,"

"Oh, jeez," Kazuichi turned his face away so the other wouldn't catch him rolling his eyes, "Whatever, I'm paying for the next date then,"

Gundam was completely quiet then, stopping right in front of Kazuichi's house and gripping the handle of the umbrella a bit tighter after Kazuichi had spoken. The mechanic was worried he may have offended him again before the other spoke again, his voice quiet and almost timid, "So, mortal, you are declaring there shall be a... second romantic rendezvous between us?"

The other didn't even bother to hide the way he snorted at that. Romantic rendezvous... That phrasing of date probably would have pissed him off in the past if they weren't already in the middle of one. Kazuichi shook his head and moved to take his keys from his pocket to unlock the door before he turned back to the other, giving him an attempt at a smile. He was still too fucking nervous to really do anything around him, but he was trying. 

"Yeah, there'll be a second day. Now go, before you have to pay a fuck ton for your taxi," Kazuichi teased, hoping it didn't come out mean. The other just nodded, though, and moved to hand back the umbrella before Kazuichi shook his head, holding his hands in front of him to show that he should keep it. 

"Just take it. It's not even mine, remember?" Kazuichi pushed Gundam's hand back, "You don't want to catch a cold."

"I suppose you speak some sense," Gundam muttered, taking the umbrella back to his side, "You may continue to keep possession of my coat until fate has us meet again,"

Kazuichi looked down at himself to see he was indeed still wearing Gundam's coat. He hoped the other didn't think he was trying to keep it. Gundam shuffled awkwardly where he stood as if he should do something to say goodbye before he settled on just speaking again. 

"I... I must be departing back now," He said, turning back to the taxi, "Goodbye, Kazuichi,"

The mechanic just raised his arm to wave goodbye at him lamely as he left, feeling like a total wuss in the moment. Dammit, should he have fucking kissed him? That seemed like the logical thing to do, but he had been too afraid of making it awkward. He was about to move and close the door when he thought over his meeting with Saihara again. Dammit, he couldn't let the other leave yet. Screw being awkward.

"Wait!" Kazuichi shouted, taking off from his doorstep and into the rain. Gundam was midway down the walkway when he heard him, turning around in surprise at the others outburst. Well, it was now or never. Kazuichi was embarrassingly almost out of breath when he caught up to him finally, but it was mostly just nerves. Fuck, why was he so nervous?

"You, fuck, ah- You forgot this!" Kazuichi swallowed all his pride and reached up to grab the other's face and pull it down to his until their lips were touching again. Gundam seemed surprised by this but wasted no time in kissing the other back. _Shit_ , Kazuichi thought, _he really is a good kisser_. They continued for a few moments before a loud honk from the taxi driver caused them both to pull away in embarrassment. Way to ruin a moment. Gundam chose not to look at him and Kazuichi didn't take any offense to it. They were both still getting used to this, and no matter how much they liked each other made it any less weird. Especially with the nosy fucker honking his horn at them. Kazuichi had half a mind to give the driver a black eye for his stunt. 

"Okay, you can... go now," Kazuichi said, backing away from the other. Gundam just nodded and waved his hand as goodbye this time, presumably too embarrassed to say anything as he climbed back into the taxi. The other stood there in the rain as he watched him, not even caring that he was getting soaked again as he waved goodbye to the other. The car immediately drove off the minute Gundam had shut the door, and before he knew it the vehicle was out of sight. Damn. What a pissy driver. 

Kazuichi wasted no time hurrying to get inside once the car was gone, internally screaming his head off for everything that had happened today. He'd expected it to be a trip to hell and back, and yet... he actually got something good out of it. A buzz from his pocket alerted him to an incoming text message and he whipped his phone out to check it, sighing in relief when he saw it was from Hajime. As happy as he was that he and Gundam weren't on bad terms, he definitely needed some more time alone to process all this before he could speak to him again. 

**Hajime, 3:17 pm:** are you done yet with ur meeting 

**Hajime, 3:18 pm:** bc no pressure but im literally about to die if you dont tell me what happened

He snorted at the dramatic content of the message and paced around the floor for a moment, trying to think of a reply that wasn't super long. A lot of shit had happened today, but he didn't exactly want to text it all to Hajime. He mulled over the thoughts for a moment before he opened up the message to reply, tapping out two simple messages and hitting send. 

**Kazuichi, 3:19 pm:** yeah dude

**Kazuichi, 3:19 pm:** i might just have a boyfriend now?

* * *

 “Shuichi, where’s your umbrella?”

Shuichi blinked and looked up the tomatoes he was cutting as his husband rounded the corner into the kitchen with a confused look. “My umbrella…?”

Kaito huffed out and crossed his arms, “Yeah, it’s not by the door. Don’t tell me you walked home in the rain again!”

“Calm down, that was one time. I took the bus,” Shuichi hummed out, gently placing his knife down on the counter. The tomatoes could wait. “I gave my umbrella to a stranger who needed it. He needed some advice too.”

Kaito didn’t look pleased, but he also didn’t look angry. More exasperated than anything, like this was something that happened a lot. “Alright, babe, but I really hate how you keep giving away our umbrellas. This is the fourth one!”

Shuichi laughed at that and crossed the kitchen to wrap his arms around his husband's shoulders and press a kiss to his cheek, “No promises. Now go set the table, Rantaro and Kokichi will be here soon.”

Kaito pouted a little and mumbled something about how annoying Kokichi was before grabbing the dishes laid on the counter to head out to the dining room. Shuichi smiled and watched him go as he returned to his own task of cutting up vegetables for their dinner, his mind slowly wandering to the man he had met before.

“Kazuichi…” Shuichi mumbled to himself. Had everything worked out for Kazuichi? He really hoped so. It wasn't as if there was anything more he could do, so he could only pray the other had followed his advice. Well, hopefully, he’d meet him again one day and find out.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WERE U GUYS SUPRISED TO SEE SAIHARA AND KAITO??? MY BEST BOYS??? MY LOVES??? i kno it was kinda unnecessary to add them but i COULDNT HELP MYSELF. I LOVE SAIHARA AND OFC I HAD HIM BE MARRIED TO KAITO BC SAIMOTA IS THE BEST NDRV3 PAIRING *cough*saimatsuandsaioumacansuckit*cough* funny thing: before the release of ndrv3 saihara's part was originally supposed to be kirigiri, bc i think she and souda would've been cool friends. but then i realized how much a better adition saihara would be after playing ndrv3 bc i didnt add any v3 characters so !! perfect time for a cameo
> 
> anyway!!! this isnt the end exactly. either theres going to be one more chapter + an epilogue OR just an epilogue. depends on how i feel. im too tired to feel like its completely wrapped up but at the same time i like it like this. ANYWAYS THANKS SO MUCH FOR READING I LOVE EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU AND IM SORRY THIS CHAPTER PROBABLY WASNT WHAT YOU WANTED LIKE AT ALL BUT I HOPE...IT MAKES U HAPPY AT LEAST A LITTLE. i tried to reach for a sense of realism and maturity that ppl would actually try to have in this situation but ah. maybe i messed it up? EITHER WAY... THANK U SO MUCH AND PLEASE
> 
> LEAVE A KUDOS. PLS. IM BEGGING U. AND A COMMENT PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD ILL LOVE U FOREVER

**Author's Note:**

> my tumblr is @03star


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